


Skelebros Raise Frisk

by Seasnake



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Adoption, Family Feels, Gen, Nonbinary Frisk (Undertale), Papyrus is the Best (Undertale), Parent Sans (Undertale), Parent W. D. Gaster, Physics, Protective Papyrus (Undertale), Protective Sans (Undertale), The Underground (Undertale), Time Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-10
Updated: 2020-11-20
Packaged: 2021-01-20 23:58:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 24,417
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21290315
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Seasnake/pseuds/Seasnake
Summary: Frisk falls into the underground several years too early.  Now it's up to the skeleton brothers to protect a child that is supposed to be sentenced to death.I know this has been done but I wanted to write my own take.
Relationships: Frisk & Papyrus & Sans (Undertale), Frisk & Papyrus (Undertale), Frisk & Sans (Undertale), Papyrus & Sans (Undertale)
Comments: 20
Kudos: 193





	1. Chapter 1

Living underground brought certain challenges. Light, clean air, cave ins. Fortunately, Mount Ebott sat on a stable fault line. Earthquakes happened rarely and were minor, a simple inconvenience for the humans on the surface. But even the smallest shifting could cause serious problems for a society built completely at the mercy of standing earth.

“SANS!?” Papyrus sprinted towards Sans’ station the second he felt the ground moving.

“Right here, bro.” Sans appeared near him. Whatever Papyrus might have said in return was drowned out by an unholy cracking and grinding of stone. The brothers stood close together as the air shook. Something(s) heavy hit the ground nearby. Trees in the forest cracked and groaned. A light appeared in the ceiling and everything finally went still. Neither moved, even if the main shock passed, stones could still be shifting.

Crumbling sounds came from above. Somewhere in the forest a tree snapped with a bang. A high pitched scream. What? Screaming? Both skeletons looked around. Sans spotted the source first. The ever present fog and frost covering Snowdin had cleared slightly, just enough for him to see something small falling. He reached out with blue magic which snapped into place around the soul with a ping.

“NICE CATCH, BROTHER!” The crumbling and rumbling continued.

Sans wasn’t sure exactly what he caught. A soul, obviously but it seemed off. He focused on shifting gravity to move the soul towards him (make if fall towards him technically). Papyrus would protect them from any debris. The body attached to the soul was tiny, really tiny.

“OH DEAR.” Papyrus held up his arms and caught the small person Sans lowered. It was a toddler, obviously. Wearing a blue coat and black snow pants. “DO NOT CRY! YOU’RE SAFE NOW.” The kid sniffed again and looked at Papyrus curiously. Sans flinched, ready for the water-works to triple. Skeletons were supposedly nightmare fuel for humans and Papyrus was loud. “FOR I THE GREAT PAPYRUS WILL KEEP YOU SAFE AND MY BROTHER SANS WILL HELP ALSO.” Somehow the kid was comforted by Papyrus’ enthusiasm, either that or they were in shock. Their crying slowed down. Papyrus kept talking and tucked the small child against his ribcage comfortingly. The kid sniffed and hid their face in his sweater.

Sans looked up at the ceiling. The odd light from earlier was gone. Rocks and trees had probably shifted to cover the gap. Assuming that light was sunlight, and the kid was what he suspected.

Papyrus had the same idea. “Sans, do you think they’re a human?” Papyrus whispered.

“Why do you say that, bro?”

“They don’t look like any monster I know and they fell from above. That’s where the humans are, isn’t it?”

“Yeah, I think they’re a human, pap.”

“REALLY!?”

“Momma?” The kid suddenly jerked in Papyrus’ arms.

“NYEH?”

“Momma? Dadda?” They looked around.

“YOUR PARENTS?”

The toddler pointed towards the ceiling, towards the forest, vaguely in that direction with confusion. “Momma, Dadda! Falling!”

“MORE HUMANS? SANS SHOULD WE…?”

“we should probably check it out. Carefully though, okay?”

“YES CAREFULLY, THINGS COULD STILL BE UNSTABLE.” Sans meant being careful of the humans but didn’t say anything. With body language he communicated he would investigate first. No Papyrus, I’m the big brother you stay behind me, I mean it.

Sans cautiously led the way into the dense forest. Anything could fall or dangerous humans might be lurking nearby. Soon he came across several broken trunks. A clearing in the woods had been made by falling slabs of stone from above.

Rocks and broken branches were scattered around. Splatters of blood and what looked like a pair of legs stuck out from one boulder. If there was a human under there their body had been almost completely crushed. A puddle of snow was stained bright red. Sans looked up to find the source. Oh God, he’d forgotten that humans didn’t turn to dust when they died. The human was probably adult sized, judging from what was left. Obviously they hit several trees on the way down and were dead, very dead. No souls anywhere in sight, sadly. He heard Papyrus’ footsteps.

“_Pap! Don’t let the kid see this._” The kid seemed to be able to understand words so he said this in their secret font just to be safe.

“Sans what…” Papyrus followed him into the clearing, thankfully he held a mitten over the child’s eyes. “Oh…” Sans grimaced, he wished he could prevent Pap from seeing this too. But he was an adult now, couldn’t protect him from everything. “_Ahem. Do uh humans turn into red water when they die?_”

“_Uh, sorta. Their whole bodies linger and rot. Like a dead tree._”

“_Oh that’s….”_ The kid thankfully started squirming and making questioning noises. “NOTHING TO SEE HERE, TINY HUMAN. THIS WAY.” Pap cut his staring short to hurriedly carry the kid away from the scene. Sans stayed just long enough to confirm that the legs under the rock were attached to a thoroughly squished, thankfully in one piece, human adult. No soul there either.

“Momma Dadda?” The kid asked.

“UM. LOOK AT THIS!” Papyrus summoned a small floating bone to distract the kid. A blue one and a bone on a skateboard made the kid giggle and forget about their parents for the moment.

“SANS IF THIS IS A HUMAN, I SHOULD TURN THEM INTO UNDYNE. AS A ROYAL GUARD IN TRAINING…”

Sans winced. He knew he had to deliver some bad news. “Uh bro, about that…”

One long, and unhappy explanation later…

“Are you sure? I mean this child is so young. Surely nobody would want to hurt them.”

“Bro, the last kid to fall down here was fifteen or so. The king killed them.”

“But the king is so nice. To think he’s really killed human children.”

“Yeah, word is that’s why the queen dumped him.” He left out the part where Undyne had also killed human kids, he didn’t have the heart to upset Pap that much.

“WHAT SHOULD WE DO, SANS? ”

“we should probably check on the effects of the quake first.”

“WHOOPSIE DOOPSIE, I COMPLETELY FORGOT.”

They hid the kid in Papyrus’ scarf, thankfully the runt accepted this and settled in for a nap. On the walk back to Snowdin they fixed what was damaged. A small plank bridge needed to be replaced and the puzzles had to be reset.

The long bridge to Snowdin was still intact and stable. The town looked to be in good shape. All the houses they could see were still sanding. There were big patches of disturbed snow and a few errant rocks scattered about. The excited murmur of working townsfolk filled the normally quiet air.

“Sans! Papyrus!”

“Hey! It’s the skeleton bros!” A few people waved upon spotting them.

“NEVER FEAR SNOWDIN! THE GREAT PAPLYRUS HAS RETURNED!”

“Hold on a second!” The large brown bear-looking monster jogged to greet them. He carried a clipboard and a hand written list of citizens. “Did you see anyone in the woods.”

“WE PASSED DOGAMY AND DOGARESSA AT THEIR POST, THEY ARE SNIFFING FOR ANYONE INJURED.”

“Also spotted the green ice cap brat and jerry.”

“Good, good.” The bear nodded and walked away.

Nobody paid any mind to the bundle in Papyrus’ arms. The brothers would investigate the rest of the town but first stop was their house.

Papyrus knew puzzles and he would be in charge of cleaning the inside but Sans was better at structural integrity. Papyrus waited for him to check the foundation. “All good.” Sans ran his magic over the building then entered.

“WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO WITH THE HUMAN, SANS?”

“I dunno bro, we know their parents are dead. Even if someone on the surface is looking for them. It’s not likely they will find an entrance.” Sans scratched his neck vertebrae. “And even if someone does come looking for them, there’s the whole problem of getting past the king.”

“SO THE TINY HUMAN IS STUCK HERE?”

“Looks like it, bro.”

“OH DEAR,”

“One thing at a time though, ok? Make sure nobody was hurt in the quake.”

“YES, YOU’RE RIGHT.”

San’s mostly empty bedroom was determined to be the safest place. They locked the small sleeping child in there and went back outside.

Phone service was reestablished within fifteen minutes. The lines were overloaded for a little while as everyone called to check on their family members. Only a couple monsters were reported hurt, a few dead, nobody missing. Thankfully even the rebellious punks of Snowdin, and most air-headed lava monsters of Hotland, knew to check in after a quake. A few of the cliff faces near Snowdin needed to be examined within the next few days but the town was undamaged. Some of the vents and belts in Hotland needed to be replaced. Waterfall received the most damage. Several bridges needed to be repaired and one of the large pools of water was now shallower than it used to be. Some of the larger sea monsters would have to sit down rather than stand.

With the living taken care of, it was time to report the dead. Including the dead humans. Papyrus made that call.

“UNDYNE WILL BE HERE SOON.”

  
“Good. You remember where the bodies are?”

“YES.”

“In that case I’ll meet you there.”

“SANS ARE YOU UP TO SOMETHING?”

“I already said, I’m going uphill.”

“SANS!” Papyrus shouted after him as he walked away.

Papyrus waited for Undyne and guards 01 and 02 to arrive. He led them to the damaged part of the forest.

“Yikes, this is a mess.” 01 looked mildly ill.

“hey guys, over here.” Sans called to them from a pile of rubble. “I found another dead human. Squashed like a bug under these rocks. Terrible way to go, huh?”

Undyne sighed. “Too bad their souls are long gone.”

“OH, ARE WE JUST GOING TO LEAVE THEM HERE?”

“No of course not. We can’t leave this lying around.”

Sans disappeared when the others weren’t looking. Undyne grumbled about him being lazy. Papyrus didn’t say anything, he was probably at home watching the child.

It took the royal guards, and one in training, half an hour to collect the dead humans and place them in boxes.

Papyrus returned home to find Sans sitting at the table. “Welcome back, bro. How’d it go?”

“HUMAN REMAINS ARE A BIT MORE…UM…DIFFERENT THAN DUST. 01 AND 02 ARE TRANSPORTING WHAT IS LEFT FOR BURIAL.”

“Sorry bro, that’s rough.” And he had already cleaned up the worst bits.

“BROTHER, WHAT DO YOU HAVE THERE?” Sans held the human child on his lap while looking through some unfamiliar bags.

“Got these off the dead humans. Some of their stuff fell through the hole with them.” Sans kept talking before Papyrus could think too hard about the implications of robbing the dead. “Their language is a little weird but I’ve figured a few things out.” He pointed at a couple field journals and cartography tools. “Looks like they were here to survey the mountain. Got notes on wildlife and plants and stuff. Also found this.” He showed Papyurus a family photo then held it in front of the kid. “Who’s this, kiddo?”

“Mama, Dada, Frisk.” They pointed happily at the people in the photo.

“What happened to them?”

“Jumpy, Dada fell, Mama threw Frisk, said ‘Stay!’ then Mama fell, really loud, and Frisk fell.”

“OH DEAR….DO YOU THINK THEY UNDERSTAND…”

“depends. kid, how old are you?”

“Hm?” Frisk pointed at themselves.

“yeah, how old are you?”

“Me three!”

“DO HUMANS AGE THE SAME AS MONSTERS?”

“According to Alphys’ records, they grow up a little faster and die at about 100.”

“THAT MEANS YOU ONLY HAVE 97 YEARS HUMAN!”

“At most,” Sans frowned before deciding. “Eh, that’s not too bad.”

“SANS, WE MUST KEEP THE TINY HUMAN.”

“You sure about that, bro?”

“THEY’RE INNOCENT SANS. WE CAN’T LET THE DIE!”

“Well…I guess the easiest thing to do would be to tell a lie as close to the truth as possible. We found the kid out in the woods, their folks died in the quake.”

“YES, IT IS ALWAYS BEST TO TELL THE TRUTH. WE WILL JUST…NOT MENTION THAT THEY ARE HUMAN.”

Sans assessed the kid with one of his special looks. The baby stared back, unconcerned. “Their soul is still young. If we keep their chest bundled up it shouldn’t be too obvious. Just a matter of them not looking like a monster.”

The taller brother got an idea. He rummaged through the junk drawer of miscellaneous things they had collected or gotten as gifts. “AHHAH!” Papyrus triumphantly produced a headband with fake cat years attached. They actually looked like horns rather than ears, which is why Alphys gave them to Undyne who gave them to Pap. The headband was a bit large for the tiny human head. Papyrus eventually secured it with a scarf and some string. “THERE! NOW THEY ARE A MONSTER CHILD.”

“Bro, nobody is going to fall for that.” Two minutes later, walking around Snowdin. “I can't believe they’re falling for it.” They were stopped for the third time to be told how cute the kid was.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I couldn't find a good place to mention this in story: Dogamy and Dogessa don't notice anything weird about Frisk because they are wearing Papyrus' scarf and smell like him.


	2. Friends

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Flowey is a jerk, don't be like Flowey.

Raising a human in the Underground was difficult. They were lucky Dad W.D. and Grandpa Semi kept obsessive notes on everything, including about humans from before the war. That and a few conversations with the old tortoise gave them a decent idea on what Frisk needed. Food and lots of it; all in its original state, not prepared with magic. This proved complicated. Most crops were grown with magical light sources, turning the food into monster food. They had to collect naturally growing plants and fungi and then prepare them with a flint-started fire. Humans also needed a wide variety of food, especially as children. The brothers taught themselves how to fish and forge. Fortunately killing a fish with a magic attack didn’t turn it into monster food. They got a reputation around Snowdin for being terrible with fire magic, as they purchased more fuel than all their neighbors. What was and was not poisonous to humans remained a deadly guessing game even with Gerson’s help.

They made sure Frisk got at least one human meal a day for dinner, with some sort of combination human and monster food for breakfast, and monster food for lunch. Frisk also drank more water than an average monster. Monsters required regular hydration but humans guzzled gallons of the stuff. That was easily explained by claiming Frisk had some water-elemental monster ancestry.

A week of parenting and they hadn’t yet starved the kid. Frisk remained, energetic, happy, and learning new words. So far so good.

Word spread quickly in a small, sleepy town like Snowdin. Within twelve hours of first being seen with the kid, everyone knew the Skeleton Brothers had adopted a baby.

The residents of Snowdin were all too eager to offer advice and to donate old clothes and toys. A couple bunnies even offered to adopt the kid themselves. Nobody suspected they were human either, other than a few comments about how they looked/smelled a little weird.

The town library had books on childcare and talking with the town parents filled them in on the rest.

Snowdin parents had a community. Unspoken law stated everyone needed to chip in around school and education. Friend networks shared babysitting duties and supplies. Papyrus already played games with MK, Cinnamon, and the inkeeper’s son, so the Skelebros were accepted into this babysitting group before they even knew the town had such a culture.

The shopkeep, Lavender, and innkeeper, Rosemarry, bunny sisters invited themselves over to help an enthusiastic Papyrus baby-proof the house. Papyrus was overwhelmed with how ‘popular’ they suddenly were and by the number of visitors and gifts they received. At least until someone offered to take Frisk off their hands; he became wearier of guests after that. 

At Sans’ insistence they weren’t introducing the kid to Undyne yet, if ever. Papyrus gave Sans permission to skip work and use as many short cuts as he like as long as it was for Frisk’s benefit.

With a long series of ‘repeat after me’ they trained Frisk to tell people they were eight years old rather than three. The words ‘human’ and ‘monster’ weren’t in their toddler vocabulary. Although they would occasionally babble about the sun, moon, and stars. The next time they asked after their parents Papyrus loudly proclaimed the would be their replacement mother. This somehow led to Frisk calling Pap ‘Mommy’. Sans of course found this hilarious, which only encouraged the kid. As revenge, or just because it was cute, maybe both, Papyrus convinced Frisk that Sans was ‘Daddy’. Frisk took great delight in shouting these names around strangers. Calling Papyrus Mommy or Sans Daddy never failed to get a reaction.

As for their real parents, Frisk spoke as if they would show up any second. Neither brother had the heart to explain. On some level the kid was aware of what had really happened, however. Frisk woke in the middle of the night with reoccurring nightmares of falling.

Frisk’s crib was originally in the living room, but after the first night of screaming, was moved to Papyrus’ room. Papyrus didn’t mind sharing his space. Sans was already considering how long it would be before they had to rearrange he whole house as Frisk grew. So much work.

They quickly settled into a routine. Sans started his morning shift at his sentry station with Frisk napping on his chest. He loved the baby sling Rosemarry had gifted him. Frisk was warm and completely hidden under his jacket.

They napped together until Frisk woke. Sans fed them some toast (monster bread covered with 'peanut butter' and 'jelly' packets found in the dump) and then let them play in the snow. Teleport them home for a change of clothes or to warm up if they got too cold. Drop the kid off with Papyrus so Sans could spend the lunch rush selling hot dogs.

Frisk spent most of the afternoon with Papyrus, only transferring back to Sans’ care when Pap needed to meet Undyne.

One morning, while Frisk was still sleeping, Sans realized he had been neglecting a certain acquaintance. The kid had been awake most of the night and would likely be napping for a while yet. Fortunately Papyrus slept less than the average monster and was perfectly willing to sit up with Frisk when the child couldn’t stay asleep.

Sans checked on his sentry station then carried Frisk to his favorite door in the woods.

“Knock knock.”

“Who’s there?”

“How.”

“How who?”

“How you been?” He waited for her to chuckle before asking something serious. “Everything still standing on that side of the door?”

“A few buildings collapsed. A couple frogits and whimsums were injured or trapped. We freed them all in a few days.”

“Better than Hotland, in that case. They had some deaths.”

“How terrible.”

“Daddy?” Frisk woke up. Why now? Kid could sleep through an excited Papyrus.

“Alright, alright, quit squirming.” Sans let them down.

“Do you have a child with you?” The lady sounded understandably confused.

“Two of the monsters who died were this kid’s parents. The bro and I have been taking care of them.”

“Daddy!”

“That’s what they call me.”

“Taking care of a child is a big responsibility, are you sure you can handle it?”

“Look Lady, whatever promises may have been made you’re not separating Papyrus and the kid. A couple of the Snowdin bunnies already tried.”

She laughed again. “It sounds like they’ve captured your hearts. In that case, congratulations.”

“Thanks.”

Frisk frowned at the door. They walked back and forth as if trying to figure out how it was talking. Frisk cupped their hands around their mouth. “PEEKABOO!” They screamed at the top of their tiny lungs. After a moment of stunned silence both monsters cracked up.

“Did you teach them that?” The lady managed to ask between giggles.

“No, must have been their parents.”

“It’s a human game.” Sans froze but didn’t say anything. “You hide your face and say peekaboo when you peak.”

“Sorry, kiddo, I don’t think she’s coming out.” Frisk pouted and crossed their arms.

“I have responsibilities here and the Ruins would be dangerous for one so young. Of course the little one is welcome to visit any time.”

“Eh, I think they’re getting frustrated with not being able to see you. Yep, there they go,” Frisk stuck their tongue out at the door then wandered off to play in the snow. “I’ll drop them off with Papyrus soon.”

“Don’t leave them behind on my account.”

Sans returned from his other sentry shifts later that day only to find Papyrus looking annoyed. “SANS!”

“What’s up, bro?” Sans sounded flippant as usual but paid attention, Papyrus seemed genuinely annoyed.

“ARE YOU INTRODUCING FRISK TO NEW MONSTERS?” The kid must have said something. “WHY DIDN’T YOU TELL ME?”

After an argument the brothers agreed, ‘no more secret friends’. This meant Papyrus went to the Ruins door and Sans went to meet Flowey.

Papyrus knocked on the door. He kept doing so until he got a response.

“Um? Hello?”

“HELLO! I AM THE GREAT PAPYRUS! MY BROTHER SANS SAYS HE USUALLY SPEAKS WITH SOMEONE THIS TIME OF DAY. ALTHOUGH A VOICE BEHIND A DOOR DOES SOUND LIKE THE KIND OF PRANK HE WOULD PULL.”

“I’m real,” the woman sounded amused.

“OH GOODIE. WOULD YOU LIKE TO BE FRIENDS?”

Papyrus returned to Snowdin feeling accomplished. Sans had managed to meet a nice lady from the Ruins. Odd she refused to come out but maybe she was just shy. She sounded like she needed friends.

Papyrus stopped by the inn.

“Welcome back, Papyrus, not reporting to Undyne today?” Rosemary, the inn owner, smiled. Her son, Sage, and Frisk sat on the floor by her feet playing with wooden jigsaw puzzles and colored foam blocks. Puzzles are important to monster culture and they start their kids on toy versions early.

“SHE HAS A MEETING WITH THE KING.”

“Mommy!” Frisk set the toys aside.

“HELLO, FRISK, DID YOU BEHAVE TODAY?”

“They were prefect. They’re a very quiet child.”

“Up! Up!”

“WHERE’S YOUR COAT, FRISK?” Papyrus refused their request.

“Up,” they pouted. Rosemary fetched their coat.

“NO. COAT THEN UP.” Papyrus helped them get dressed.

“Now up?” Frisk asked again once their coat was on.

“YES, WE CAN GO HOME.” Papyrus lifted them up and over his head to make them giggle.

“Weee!”

“Mommy, Mommy, I want ups.” Sage decided. Rosemary laughed and wished them good night.

Papyrus set Frisk on the carpet with some action figures and went to the kitchen. The front door slammed open. Papyrus was concerned it was an intruder but no, it was Sans, making an entrance that he usually didn’t have the energy for.

“Sans, is everything alright?” he asked quietly with concern.

“Bro, don’t ever talk to that flower again.” Sans sounded as angry as he looked. Wowie, last time Papyrus saw him this fired up was…well he didn’t really remember.

“NOT THAT I DON’T TRUST YOU OR ANYTHING BUT… WHY? WAIT I KNOW THAT FACE. YOU DON’T JUST GET TO SAY THINGS LIKE THAT WITHOUT EXPLANATION.”

“He’s bad news is that not enough?” Sans’ eye finally stopped glowing.

“SANS, YOU CAN’T ASK ME TO ABANDON A FRIEND WITHOUT A REASON. NOR DOES THAT EXPLAIN YOUR REACTION. YOU NEVER USE YOUR MAGIC.”

Sans sighed. “how much do you remember of dad’s research into multiple timelines?”

“THE POSSIBILITIES OF SAVE FILES, YES I REMEMBER.”

“okay.” Sans sat down on the sofa and thought about how to explain this. “Well, that flower has or had the ability to go back in time. He’s killed people in past timelines so don’t trust him no matter what.”

“OH DEAR. BUT WAIT…IF HE CAN CHANGE TIME, HOW ARE WE HAVING THIS CONVERSATION NOW? SHOULDN’T WE HAVE WOKEN UP THIS MORNING OR SOMETHING?”

“that’s the weird part,” Sans contemplated things a bit more. “hey kiddo, come here a sec.” He waved Frisk over from where the child was rearranging action figures on the carpet.

“Daddy?” Frisk obediently toddled over.

Sans summoned their soul. “heh, red, huh? That explains it.” A quick explanation of soul types and how determination relates to going back in time. “which means the flower has motivation to kill frisk if he ever finds out about them. Pap, if you ever see that flower again, blast him.”

“SANS, JUST BECAUSE FLOWEY KILLED PEOPLE IN PAST TIMELINES DOESN’T MEAN HE CAN’T CHANGE.”

“he has a ton of HP and can burrow, he won’t die.” Papyrus frowned but didn’t argue further.

Regardless, Papyrus kept an eye out for Flowey. He found him the next day, spying on the residents of Snowdin. He'd extended his body to peer into the front window of a house.

“FLOWEY IF YOU WANT TO GO INSIDE YOU CAN KNOCK. YOU DON’T HAVE TO LOOK THROUGH THE WINDOWS.”

“Yeah, right. Like someone will just let a talking flower inside their house.”

“YOU NEVER KNOW UNLESS YOU TRY. WHAT ARE YOU DOING ANYWAY?”

“Nothing.” Flowey shrunk in size a bit, pulling away from the house he was spying. “Say, buddy have you seen anybody new in the Underground recently?”

“A NEW MONSTER? ARE YOU TRYING TO MAKE NEW FRIENDS FLOWEY? THAT’S WONDERFUL.”

“Yeah, sure… So have you seen anyone?”

“I SUPPOSE YOU DON’T NEED THAT MANY FRIENDS CONSIDERING YOU ARE FRIENDS WITH THE GREAT PAPYRUS. BUT I WOULDN’T WANT YOU TO BE LONELY WHEN I CAN’T BE AROUND. YES, ONE CAN NEVER HAVE TOO MANY FRIENDS. ONCE I AM POPULAR I WILL HAVE SO MANY FRIENDS!”

“I’m not in the mood, idiot.” Flowey grumbled then said loUder. “Come on buddy, just tell me if you’ve seen anybody new around town. It’s not that hard of a question.”

“ABOUT THAT, DID YOU SPEAK TO SANS RECENTLY?” 

“He told you about that? Since when does he tell you anything?”

“NOW FLOWEY, I REALIZE SANS MAY HAVE A BAD HABIT OF KEEPING THINGS TO HIMSELF BUT HE’S TRYING HIS BEST.”

“Uh huh. So, anybody new or not?”

“WELL, NEW MONSTERS AREN’T BORN THAT OFTEN. THE RABBIT FAMILIES USUALLY HAVE THE MOST KIDS.

“Not who’s been born Dummy. Who suddenly appeared out of nowhere?”

“THERE’S NO NEED FOR NAME CALLING. YOU SHOULD REALLY WORK ON YOUR TEMPER IF YOU WANT TO MAKE NEW FRIENDS.”

“Buddy, I do not have the patience today. I know interpersonal skills go right over your thick skull but I only need you to answer a simple question.”

“THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT I WAS TALKING ABOUT.”

“Look, someone stole something from me that I need back. So stop being a moron, if you can.”

“FLOWEY THAT’S MEAN. IS THIS WHY YOU HAD A FIGHT WITH SANS?”

“Are you listening? there’s a thief on the loose.”

“YOU REALLY SHOULDN'T INSULT PEOPLE.”

“Are you even listening to me? So freaking useless, per usual.”

“FLOWEY WAIT!” Papyrus stopped him from tunneling away. “NO MORE SPYING AROUND SNOWDIN. IF I SEE YOU IN TOWN AGAIN I WILL HAVE TO TELL UNDYNE. AND IF SANS CATCHES YOU, WELL, HE’LL DO MORE THAN THAT. BEST STAY OUT OF HIS WAY ENTIRELY.”

This made the flower angry and he put on his creepy face. “Aw, really? Is the autistic bonehead standing up to me? Can’t even get a place on the royal guard. You’re the laughing stock of the underground.”

“WHAT…WHAT A MEAN THING TO SAY.”

“So what are you going to do about it pushover.” Flowey wore his evil grin as he reached vines towards Papyrus menacingly.

“IT SEEMS SANS WAS RIGHT. YOU NEED TO BE TAUGHT A LESSON. VERY WELL, MY SPECIAL ATTACK.” Papyrus didn’t like showing these off. Unlike bone attacks their power output could be tricky to regulate. But if Sans said Flowey could take a direct hit, than he didn’t have to worry about accidentally killing him. He summoned one of the family blasters.

“What!! Since when can you do that!? You’ve never done that before! Even when I killed you! Do you need brother’s permission, or something?” Flowey shrieked as his vines were disintegrated by a laser blast. A circle of blue bones appeared around him before he could attack again.

“NOW, FLOWEY I HAVE NO DESIRE TO KILL YOU BUT I WILL KNOCK YOU DOWN TO ONE HP AND LOCK YOU IN THE SHED UNTIL YOU LEARN SOME MANNERS.”

Flowey grumbled something about screwing this and dove under the snow.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think Papyrus is the kind of guy who will put much more effort into protecting his family than protecting himself. Flowey wants to kill me? I stick to my pacifist beliefs. Flowey wants to kill my kid? Blasters ready!


	3. Entertaining a Toddler

Sans returned home later than usual. “WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?”

“Alphy’s lab. Check this out.” He tried to catch the kid and put a new shirt on them. Frisk giggled and ran away. Sans sighed and just used blue magic to retrieve the kid. Papyrus frowned at their antics but Frisk was laughing up a storm so he didn't say anything. Sans eventually got the the material over Frisk's head. “check them,” he said once the shirt was finally on.

“I CAN’T SEE THEIR SOUL. IS IT SUPPOSED TO DO THAT?”

“Yep, I was trying to make it look like a monster soul, but this will work.” He placed a custom made horn-headband on the kid. The horns looked much more realistic. "And I put these together." New snow boots for the kid. Water resistant to keep the kid warm when playing outside. More importantly they were a secondary disguise. It had taken some work but Sans found fur that matched Frisk's hair color close enough to look natural. The soles of the shoes were carved to look like hooves. Most monsters didn't bother with shoes so people would just assume they were Frisk's feet.

“SANS DOES THIS MEAN YOU’RE DOING THE SCIENCE AGAIN?”

“I dunno, bro. I wasn’t planning on it.”

“WHY NOT?”

Sans didn’t answer. Papyrus waited. Sans looked at the happy kid who was making one of Papyrus’ action figures climb Sans’ leg. If Frisk was now the most determined being in the underground did that mean the resets were over? Sans really needed to start thinking about the future again huh?

“maybe when the kid is older. They’re too young to bring to the lab. Alphys would recognize a human, anyway.” The quake had thankfully taken out Alphy's cameras so there was no footage of Frisk falling into the underground. Sans sent her a few preemptive texts as soon as Papyrus posted pictures of the squirt on Undernet. 'have you seen the kiddo?' 'they almost look like a human, huh'. Alphys may suspect but she wouldn't have the confidence to do anything about it. Proving Frisk was a human would implicate Sans and Papyrus as traitors, after all. Even if she did work up the courage to look through past surveillance footage or try to find record of the kid's parents, she wouldn't be able to. A bunch of her digital records had gotten corrupted, wonder how that happened? So as long as Alphys didn't come face to face with Frisk, everything should be fine.

Frisk adapted well to their new home. They wore their horn headbands without complaint and never asked why their new friends looked different. When Sans read Papyrus a bed time story, he let Frisk look at the page and trace the words.

The innkeeper’s son was only a little younger than Frisk and Monster Kid was practically the same age as Frisk. They instantly accepted Frisk as a new playmate.

Papyrus was a big hit as a babysitter. If a child is too wound up for dinner time, send them to run around with Papyrus for a few hours. His excellent control of his magic meant he could prevent even the clumsiest kids from hurting themselves. At least too badly, MK faceplanted into a bone-fence more than once, but at least he didn’t go over the cliff-edge.

Sans wasn’t so popular with the other parents. He fell asleep whenever he was supposed to be watching the kids. And he took Frisk with him everywhere. Which apparently you weren’t supposed to do? What was wrong with taking them to Grillby’s? Grillby’s niece visited all the time.

When Sans learned child leashes were a thing, he took Frisk with him to Hotland too. He could tie the kid’s leash to his booth and let them wander. Waterfall was Undyne’s turf so he didn’t take them there.

The only downside, thus far, was Frisk’s opinion on Papyrus’ cooking. Sans would choke down whatever and praise it. However, there is no harsher critic than a kid. Lots of bleh faces and throwing food when Pap tried to feed them yet another inedible pasta or burnt beyond recognition fish.

Sans eventually gave up and asked Gerson to come over and teach Pap how to cook proper human food. Human food, ‘your monster food is great Pap, humans just have different tastes, I guess’. The geezer was way too smug about it and insisted on Sans using a short cut from Waterfall to the house so he didn’t have to walk in the snow. At least Papyrus could now make something half-way decent; and Gerson continued to donate mushrooms and anything useful he found in the dump to their parenting efforts. “I don’t hate humans. Knew quite a few friendly ones back in the day. A few even joined our side during the war. But if anyone comes asking, I’ve completely forgotten what they look like. Blue skin maybe? Definitely no horns though.”

“Where’s the Punk?!” Undyne wasn’t stupid. Papyrus had recently adopted a kid and posted a few pictures of them on Undernet. However Undyne hadn’t met them yet. By the third time the kid was napping or busy when she visited she knew the bags of bones were avoiding her. From experience she knew trying to call them out on their strange behavior would be like talking to a particularly stubborn rock. So she just kept dropping by unannounced.

Today she cornered Papyrus at his station when she knew Sans was supposed to be in Waterfall. Coin toss on whether he would actually be there or not. Luck was on her side, though Papyrus seemed to be alone.

“UNDYNE! HELLO.”

“Where’s this kid? I want to meet em!”

“Oh uhm…” The way Papyrus glanced around meant said child was probably somewhere nearby. A head appeared from a nearby snow poff. A toddler ran over to Papyrus proudly waving a stick over their head. Undyne couldn’t tell much about them as they were bundled up in thick snow gear. “GOOD JOB FRISK, YOU FOUND IT.”

“Are you playing fetch?”

“THE CANINES RECOMMENDED IT.” Frisk finally noticed Undyne and tried to hide behind Pap’s thin legs.

“Hey there, punk,” Undyne said hello. Frisk frowned.

“SANS SAID WE SHOULD WAIT TO INDRODUCE THEM TOO MANY NEW PEOPLE.” He peered down at the kid. “FRISK, ARE YOU HIDDING?”

“Yes.” The kid said proudly.

“You don’t have to hide from me, I’m the captain of the royal guard.” The kid didn’t seem convinced. Even though it was cold out Undyne took her helmet off. This did nothing to reassure the kid.

“UNDYNE MAY LOOK SCARY BUT NO NEED TO WORRY, SMALL ONE. THE GREAT PAPYRUS WON’T ALLOW YOU TO COME TO HARM.”

“yes, mommy.”

“BWAHAHA! What did they call you?”

“Mommy!” the kid said indignantly.

“Oh that’s great!”

“THEIR MOTHER IS NOT HERE SO THE GREAT PAPYRUS IS ACTING AS THEIR MOTHER. ISN’T THAT RIGHT, FIRSK?” Papyrus picked the kid up.

“Papy,” Frisk said.

Undyne snorted and walked over for a better look at the kid. Frisk frowned at her and she frowned back. From what little she could see of their face, they almost looked human. “What kind of monster are they anyway?”

“WITH THEIR FAMILY SADLY UNAVAILABLE IT’S HARD TO SAY. SANS SAYS THEY ARE PART BOVINE AND WATER ELEMENTAL.”

“That makes sense.” Frisk's tracks in the snow were little hoofprints. “So what are you teaching them? Can they use magic yet?”

“UNDYNE, THEY’RE ONLY EIGHT.”

“Aw,” in her excitement to see the kid she had forgotten how boring little kids were.

Frisk was pretty good at entertaining themselves but sometimes Sans still had to figure out something fun to do. Unlike a dog, Frisk got bored with fetch.

Sans decided to try something he read about in one of those parenting books from the surface. They listed something about stages of cognitive development and how little kids just couldn’t understand some things. He figured he’d give it a try.

Sans sat Frisk down and showed them two glasses of water. Once Frisk agreed they were the same size he poured one glass into a tall and narrow glass. Frisk pointed to the tall glass and declared with complete confidence that that one now had more liquid in it. Sans poured it back into the first glass and Frisk said they were the same.

Sans managed not to laugh as he did this a few more times and asked probing questions about where Frisk thought the extra water was coming from. Frisk’s confidence eventually evaporated and they gaped at Sans as if he were bending the rules of reality. Then Sans did laugh. Summoning bones out of thin air, a-ok, fluid conservation, incomprehensible. “Do you want to try?” Three hours later Papyrus came home to find every container in the house spread out on a soaking wet kitchen floor. San’s excuse of ‘doing the science’ didn’t get him out of helping clean up.

Frisk was nothing if not determined. They tried shoving action figures into various jars to see if they would fit. Sans put an end to that by getting them a bag of marbles to pour into glasses instead. It was a way to have Frisk practice their counting, too. The fact that tall containers didn’t necessarily hold more continued to blow the kid’s mind. Frisk later showed this magic trick of putting ten marbles in different sized glasses to MK.

Sans borrowed that cognitive development book back from the Librarby. Kids couldn’t fully grasp three dimensional objects or do sequences in reverse, either huh? So many new pranks to try.

Frisk was a sharp kid eager to learn things. They were too young for official school so it was up to the Sans and Papyrus to teach them things. Neither brother had a good grasp on what 'normal' meant so they just included Frisk in whatever they were doing. Reading Fluffy Bunny aloud every night helped them start to recognize a few words. They got the hang of puzzles as quickly as any monster child thanks to Papyrus. Sans made them practice numbers but his main goal was increasing their vocabulary. A goal he discovered one morning. 

"Eggcellent breackfast, bro."

"Excellent." Frisk said before Papyrus could work up a proper groan.

"what?"

"Excellent not eggselent." Frisk had ignored all previous puns.

"I know, just egg sounds like...never mind." the kid stared at him blankly.

"Not the same."

"GOOD JOB, FRISK! YOU'RE ABSOLUTELY RIGHT. THAT ONE WORD SOUNDS LIKE ANOTHER WORD ISN'T AT ALL AMUSING!" Papyrus said proudly. Sans slouched in his seat to sulk while Papyrus praised Frisk's good sense.

Other jokes didn't go over much better. Frisk's sense of humor barely advanced beyond funny faces. Frisk could parrot things back but didn't understand any of it. The next time Frisk was with Sans at the Ruins door he tried to teach them knock knock jokes just to see if they could do it. It was the simplest formula he could think of. The lady in the Ruins helped by demonstrating although she warned Sans the kid might be too young.

Frisk repeated a few jokes back to the lady than tried to make up one on their own.

"Knock knock"

"Who's there"

Frisk looked around and selected random object in their field of vision. "Rock"

"Rock who?"

Frisk glanced about for a second noun. "Stick!"

The lady behind the door laughed hysterically at this 'joke' and at the next half-dozen Frisk eagerly created on the spot. Sans knew when to give up. For a few years at least Papyrus could be delighted by Frisk's disapproval of puns while Sans subtly tried to improve their language skills.

Trying to find someone to build an addition on their house proved to be surprisingly difficult. Overcrowding, limited space and materials allowed contractors to charge high fees. Even more so if they had to commute to Snowdin from New Home. Too expensive. Sans and Papyrus could probably do it themselves but finding material and doing construction while working multiple jobs and taking care of Frisk, was going to be tricky.

Most houses in the underground were built out of stone or metal but their poor insulating properties made other things more popular in Snowdin. Wood, understandably, was in short supply. Several families of Snowdin made a living caretaking and harvesting what they could. The groves in Snowdin all shared root systems with trees above ground that grew through the barrier. Monsters encouraged their growth with magic of course, but there still wasn’t much wood to go around. Plastic and rubber composite recycled from random junk in the dump made insulation. Fungus/moss/lichen could be dried and packed into sturdy planks. 

Papyrus bartered for some wooden planks around town. Sans offered to double check Alphy’s math and assist on a few projects if she procured the rest of what they would need in plastics.

The Core required constant cooling so there was always someone chucking ice blocks into the river. The inefficiency of it was just stupid. Sans built a simple ramp out of scrap metal in fifteen minutes. It wasn’t ideal and got backed up easily but it worked well enough for the ice movers to take extra time off. In exchange they were willing to do a bit of labor and hauling.

For an afternoon they dropped Frisk off with Rosemary, recruited as many townspeople as they could and managed to get the thing built.

Taking Frisk to Hotland turned out to be a good thing. Frisk learned quickly and soon enthusiastically assisted Sans’ sales efforts.

“Here you go.” Sans handed over a hot dog to a Vulkin.

“Want two?” Frisk popped up from behind the counter with a second dog.

“Uh…”

“It’s yummy.” Frisk gave them baby eyes until they handed over their gold. Sans rewarded Frisk with a high five.


	4. Learning Things

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Partially inspired by:
> 
> https://www.deviantart.com/eightthekat/art/Learning-Wingdings-Pt-1-806426440
> 
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9lMsHp3KM4

Frisk aged differently than their monster peers but still aced their test to enter first grade. It wasn't a hard and fast test or anything, just to make sure they could keep up with the class and follow directions.

All the kids in Snowdin attended school together. The school was only one building, although they also spent time in the library. Four teachers worked full time teaching math, history, science, and language. Snowdin was a tightknit community and most adults helped take care of the kids at least a little. Many adults in Snowdin chipped in to teach other subjects or specialty classes. Lavender, the shop-keep bunny, gave cooking classes on Tuesdays. Rosemary taught health and first aide. The newspaper editors taught writing and word puzzles twice a week. Papyrus offered to showed the students puzzles. Thankfully, nobody remembered Sans used to work for the royal scientist so he wasn't pressured into teaching any classes.

The school's head teacher didn't let Sans escape completely, though. The first parent teacher meeting of the year rolled around and she dropped a few hints about about how there would be 'lots of boring paperwork' and 'shouldn't the kids have someone to play with while their parents were busy at a meeting?'. Sans humored her and went to the meeting alone. If it seemed like something Papyrus could do than he'd skip the next one.

The meeting started with introductions and a reminder of all the new kids to join classes that year, including MK and Frisk.

“Is Frisk male or female? They have a gendered body, don’t they?” Mrs. Slime spoke up.

“They identify as they.” Sans answered.

“Really? What did their parents call them?” Mrs. Slime kept talking.

“I don’t know what their birth parents called them. when we adopted them they were old enough to understand the question so we just asked. they kept changing their answer.”

“Sounds like they were just being ornery.” Mrs. Slime scoffed. Rosemary smiled, she knew Frisk well enough to picture them doing this.

Sans shrugged. “We’re not going to pressure them. They can change pronouns whenever they want.” Most of the table nodded in agreement. Mrs. Slime huffed. “what’s the big deal, anyway?”

“It’s confusing.”

“They’re kids, they’re already confusing,” one of the bunny moms tried to defuse the tension.

“Frisk is going to get a complex because two men are afraid of a bit of femininity in their house,” Mrs. Slime said as if she were an authority.

“I’m not trying to tell you how to raise your kids. nobody said anything about how you slapped a bow and a hat on your sexless children the second they budded.”

“Okay, next order of business,” the schoolmarm interrupted.

“My species of slime is male and female,” Mrs. Slime said indignantly.

Sans raised an eye socket. Oh she wanted to challenge him? Was he a biologist by trade? no. But he had read about ever monster species in creating a believable fake family tree for Frisk. “Actually your species are born hermaphrodites and differentiates at puberty based on population requirements and environmental conditions. Pre-war studies suggest choice, or at least psychological perception of relevant factors could influence sexual development.”

Mrs. Slime wiggled angrily. “Well, we shouldn’t expect you to know too much about Frisk anyway, as they’re not your child.”

“what?”

“I understand that Papyrus is ‘special needs’ but what is your excuse for not contributing to the population?”

“Ahem!” Several people interrupted with hand waves and new topics of conversation.

They moved on to scheduling proposals for coming classes. Mrs. Slime gave a routine objection to her son taking cooking lessons only for the teachers to remind her that it was a good skill to know just in case his future hypothetical wife ever got sick. Mrs. Slime was also against Papyrus teaching the kids. Sans talked over her as if wasn’t mid-rant. “So, every other Thursday? That looks clear. It would get the older kids out of the building for the day.”

“That would be convenient.” The school mistress played along with pretending Mrs. Slime didn’t exist.

“You’re not taking my babies into the woods where those delinquents hang out! Especially not without a chaperone!”

Sans continued to ignore her and texted Papyrus. “the bro says that works for him.”

“Um, maybe some of the other guards could supervise as well? Just to be safe?” A bird father suggested as a peace offering.

“I’m sure lesser and greater dog would be happy to,” another parent said.

“If we’re adding classes willy-nilly than we must add home economics,” Mrs. Slime spoke up.

“There is an extra class time free for the middle age group,” one of Mrs. Slime’s friends agreed.

“good, that can be filled with the missing sciences.” Sans said.

“We already teach sciences, weren’t you listening?”

“What sciences do you think are lacking?”

“geology for one, with the overcrowding concerns we’re going to need new tunnels soon.” Sans counted on his fingers. “Botny, horticulture, and of course physics, or at least architecture.”

“How could any of that be useful for…”

“We don’t have any tunneling classes do we?” Mrs. Monster interrupted Mrs. Slime. “We’re teaching MK of course but the other children should know which minerals are safe to eat or not.”

“Would that cover the core too? My kids are always asking about the ice business,” a wolf added.

Mrs. Slime sulked while Sans smugly leaned back in his chair. After it was decided that Mr. and Mrs. Monster would donate their time and rock collection to a geology class; the rest of the meeting wrapped up peacefully.

“Thanks for coming everyone. The next meeting will be in five weeks, is that alright?” The schoolmarm looked around the circle with special attention on Sans. He gestured in the affirmative.

Frisk had a good life all things considered. They had a best friend named MK. They went to school, got good grades, played with other kids. Nobody minded Frisk identified as non-binary. Usually slimes, ghosts, and other monsters with asexual bodies used ‘they’ pronouns but nobody misgendered Frisk.

Everybody had their own oddities but Frisk’s family was odder than most. They didn’t have a mother or a father. Frisk’s birth parents died and their big brothers adopted them. Most of the time Frisk called them Papa/Papy and Dad/Dadsans/Sansdad/Dans/Sady but referred to them as Frisk’s brothers around strangers just to make things clear. Monsters didn’t die in accidents very often so orphans were uncommon.

In addition to normal rules, do your homework, go to bed on time, eat everything on your plate. Frisk had a few strange rules to follow. Always wear your horns, never take them off, never let anybody know they were fake, always keep the headband hidden under their hair. Never trust a flower. If you see a talking golden flower, run, hide, and call Sans immediately. Don’t try magic outside of the house. Don’t show anyone your soul. Always either bundle up or wear one of the special shirts, even when in Hotland. Pretend you can’t see the golden stars but be sure to touch the one outside the house every morning. 

Frisk liked learning things but had mixed feelings about school. They preferred Sans explaining things. He complained about how difficult it was to come up with ‘kiddy explanations’ but he always made more sense than the teachers. Especially science and math. Frisk once asked ‘Why does 1+1=2?’ and the math teacher said ‘that’s just how it is’. When Frisk asked the same question at home Sans got out the trusty bag of marbles and explained how language was an arbitrary nomenclature attached to axioms. Whatever you call a marble if you include a second marble in the same group as the first marble, you now have double what you had before.

When Frisk learned more difficult equations they learned it from Sans. The teachers explained how multiplication and division worked. Sans allowed Frisk into his not-so-secret-lab and used the white board to explain why the formulas worked in terms of addition.

At least the teachers didn’t pull pranks, although to be fair, it was easier to remember something worked after seeing it in practice. Heavier things fell at the same rate as lighter things, Frisk would never forget that after a memorable day of japes.

Papyrus didn’t do math or history, he did patterns, puzzles, and art. He also gave good advice when Frisk had a moral or friendship dilemma.

Language was another thing Papa and Daddy were better at than the teachers. By the time Frisk started school they knew three languages, Spoken, Hands, and Wing dings. Wing dings was a family secret though, not even MK could learn that one. School taught, Spoken, Hands, Froggit language and Slime language. The teachers always taught new vocabulary by comparing it to spoken words. Papy said that was confusing and drew little pictures next to the words on Frisk’s worksheets.

If it were up to Frisk Sans and Papyrus would teach them everything. Still, school was a fun time to hang out with friends. Rabbit girl Paprika wasn’t really a child anymore but still attended school sometimes with her little brother, Cinnamon, when she had time off work. Frisk’s usual class included, MK, Cinnamon, GSlime, BSlime, Sage, Bunny Kid, two other bunnies, a wolf pup, a colt, a bear cub, two ice elementals, and a red bird chick.

MK and Frisk were friendly with everyone but their habit of getting into places they weren’t supposed to be made them best friends. Most of the other kids were content to hang out around Snowdin but Frisk and MK went exploring. Mr. and Mrs. Monster had all but given up on tracking MK and now just relied on Sans and his shortcuts to bring their wayward son home after an adventure.

So, Frisk had a good life and was usually happy. When they returned from school one day looking sullen and thoughtful the skeletons knew something must have happened.

“hey kiddo, how was school?”

“It was okay.” Frisk ignored the brothers. They read their text books and hid in their room until dinner. The family of three sat around the table. Frisk just poked at their food.

“FRISK EAT YOUR MEAL.”

“is something wrong, kiddo?”

Frisk set their fork aside. “Am I a human?”

Sans choked on his food. Papyrus started babbling. “OH UM, HUMAN? WHY DO YOU THINK THAT?”

“did someone say something to you?”

“No.” Frisk fidgeted. “Just, my soul is upside-down and red from the pictures of what souls are supposed to look like. I can see it when I take my shirt off. And…” the glanced from their fish to Papyrus’ plate of pasta. “I’m always eating weird things and I get really tired if I don’t.”

“FRISK, ARE YOU SKIPPING MEALS?”

“yeah,” Sans saw no point in lying. “congrats, you figured it out.”

“Wow, okay.” Frisk frowned at their plate. “Did my parents really die in the quake?”

“YES! WE PROMISE, FRISK, WE NEVER LIED TO YOU!”

Sans thought for a moment, trying to remember everything he’d said; “yep, never explicitly lied.” He agreed after a moment.

“So my nightmares of falling?”

“yeah, you fell from the surface during the quake.”

“SANS CAUGHT YOU, WE WEREN’T ABLE TO CATCH YOUR PARENTS, THOUGH.”

“Oh… Does this change anything?”

“OF COURSE NOT!”

“You’ll always be our frisky.”

Frisk accepted a group hug from their family. “I’m not that surprised. I guess I always kinda knew I was different.”

“you’re a smart kid.”

“I just want to know. Why is it a secret?” The skeletons tensed.

“better finish your food before we talk about that,” Sans awkwardly ended the hug.

“YES, EAT YOUR FISH.”

"now that you know you're a human, you get new chores."

"You're working me to the bone."

"heh, come on. Only way to get there is by shortcut." Sans took Frisk's hand and teleported them to a carefully cultivated garden. They stood on a small dirt patch that had formed on top of a mostly flat pile of stones. Light brighter than anything Frisk had seen in years surrounded them. Stone stood behind and beside them but in front was shimmering waving light.

"Where are we?"

"the place i grow vegetables for you to eat. Premium human food."

"Is that outside?" Frisk squinted up at the light.

“Yep. The Barrier covers the whole mountain. If it didn’t monsters could have tunneled to freedom ages ago.” He nodded to a collapsed tunnel behind them. "that's actually what this was, an early attempt to dig out."

“So that's the barrier?" Frisk frowned at the pulsating wall. "Sunlight can get in?”

"Anything can get in. It's getting out that's the trouble."

“I remember this.” Frisk closed their eyes and felt the warmth on their face. “And wind.” They often dreamed of a sunny field of flowers, swaying in the breeze. “Does that make me bad?”

“What does?”

“I remember the sun but I don’t remember my parents?”

“Whoa, kiddo, never say that, okay?”

“I just feel like I should miss them more than I do.”

“Kid, the first couple months you were with us, you woke up every night with nightmares. I’m kinda happy you don’t remember.” Frisk didn’t look convinced.

“Here,” he handed them a photo.

"My parents?" Frisk looked at the semi-familiar faces.

"Yeah, I know forgetting sucks just...hold on to what you can, okay? they'll understand. heh, at least that's what I tell myself." Frisk waited for him to continue but he changed the topic. "let me show you how to take care of these plants."

The same day after seeing sunlight for the first time in years, Frisk found themselves someplace unusually dark. Frisk left home to go for a walk. They told Pappy they were going to play with MK but they didn’t actually feel up to it. They had an hour until dinner and just needed some time to think. Frisk knew they were human, they knew the extreme lengths Sans and Papyrus had gone to for their sake. How could nothing be different? What did growing up monster mean? The last human to do so had been Chara Dreemur and they died. What would happen as Frisk grew up?

Frisk looked up and found they had wandered off the path while lost in thought. Snowdin woods could get dark but they had never seen them this dark. Long shadows made the forest look ominous. Frisk glanced around for a recognizable landmark. Instead they saw something odd.

A grey door? What was a door doing here? Frisk pondered for a moment then approached it. They knocked but received no response. Frisk tried the handle and found it unlocked. There was only a single room behind the door, just as grey and eerie as the door. Something, someone, stood in the center of the empty rectangle.

“Hello?” Frisk called. The monster moved ever so slightly. “Are you alright?” Frisk stepped inside. The door slammed shut behind them.

_“I did not expect that to be the first thing you ask.” _

_“You speak Wing Dings?”_ Frisk said slowly, they didn’t have much opportunity to practice the language.

The black drips in the white face turned upward slightly. _“I do and I am. What do you call yourself?”_

_“Frisk. Sans and Papyrus said this was our secret family font. How did you learn it?” Frisk cautiously walked a little closer to the mystery monster._

“_Other way around. They learned it from me. A long time ago, that never happened._” He sounded sad.

“_Oh. Then do you know what fuck, shit, damn, and crap mean?”_ The monster’s eyes, or what Frisk assumed were eyes, slowly blinked.

“_One moment.”_ He shuffled around Frisk to the door. He opened the portal slightly and stuck a hand out. At a sentry station in Waterfall Sans jolted awake as something smacked the back of his skull. He looked around but couldn’t find the source.

Back in the room the mystery monster shut the door again. _“What did Sans tell you they meant?”_

_“Different ways of saying ‘love’. Papyrus told me not to repeat them, though.”_

“_Listen to Papyrus. Those are swear words. But that is not why I went to the effort of pulling you into this place._” Frisk felt nervous as the monster’s aura became hostile. _“You are dangerous and you live very closely with those I care about. Humans…I hate humans. Humans slaughtered my entire race.”_

Frisk guiltily fidgeted with the hem of their sweater. “I’m a human.”

“_Yes_.” The mystery man sighed. “_But you were also raised by my sons. I have a test for you, human.”_ Frisk nodded, they were good at tests.

Frisk jumped when something materialized in front of them. A giant beast skull surveyed them with mismatched eyes. Frisk stifled a flinch. They didn’t have anything to be afraid of. The animal growled. It didn’t sound mean, just weary. Frisk slowly held out a hand for it to sniff. The magical beast eyed Frisk for a second before floating closer and breathing in their face. Frisk smiled and passively held out both arms. The skull cautiously nudged Frisk’s hands with it’s nose. Frisk giggled and pet it’s snout. All the fear disappeared and the beast happily nuzzled Frisk. The human laughed, happy at meeting a new friend. They could have sworn they felt their soul pulse, even though they were wearing one of their special shirts.

An arm wrapped around Frisk. The skull pulled away slightly and Frisk turned to look at the monster. His lined face seemed happy now. _“Frisk, not a font. Sounds like it could be though. Do your grandfather a favor and invent one.”_

“Hee hee, _okay_.” Frisk returned the hug. “_Grandpa, you’re all goopy.”_ They looked up at the skeletal face but it started to fade. Grandpa disappeared from their arms. Frisk found themselves standing in an empty room all alone. Frisk walked around, Frisk waited, Frisk called into the nothingness but nobody came. Eventually Frisk started to feel hungry and left so Sans and Pappy wouldn’t worry.


	5. Revealed

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Conclusion part 1, Frisk is discovered. This was getting long so I made it an extra chapter.

Being king meant serving the people. Asgore did his best to know every monster by name, to do volunteer work, to keep hope alive. To meet new citizens he visited schools every couple years. Today he made the trip to Snowdin. The sleepy town brought back memories of their early days Underground so he didn’t often visit. Still, he enjoyed teaching children and sharing his love of gardening.

“Hello, your majesty,” the school head mistress greeted him at the door. “Oh, let me help you with that.”

“It’s fine, I’ve got it.” He carried a tray of new sprouts for the kids to re-pot.

“If you’re sure. We’ve prepared the main room for your demonstration. The parents’ have a potluck lunch if you care to stay afterward.”

“Of course, I’d be delighted.” Same as last time, then. She led him inside. “Children, please welcome our special guest, his majesty King Asgore Dreemur.”

“Hello, your Majesty,” They chorused slightly out of sync.

“Good morning, children,” Asgore smiled at the assembled class. All the kids sat on the floor with small pots and spades ready.

Asgore demonstrated how to re-pot a flower and recited his normal speech about taking care of plants and responsibility for carrying for living things. The teachers distributed seedlings to the students and helped them shovel potting soil.

Asgore scanned the room for any student who might need his help handling the plants. What he saw made him freeze. In the middle of the group, sat a human. Or what looked like a human. He hadn’t noticed at first, only seeing the horns but that child’s face was unmistakably human.

The child didn’t notice his staring. They helped their armless lizard friend transfer their seedling to a pot.

Asgore forced himself to look away. Maybe he was mistaken. He’d never seen a monster that looked like that but if they were human, surely someone would have noticed. Even if most monsters didn’t know what humans looked like, a human soul was easily identifiable. The first time someone started an encounter with the child or checked them, it would be obvious. The king focused on the task at hand. He couldn’t make a scene now.

The children finished and washed their hands as parents arrived with lunch.

Asgore was surprised to see two skeletons among the parents. He didn't remember ever meeting them personally but he knew of them. Papyrus must be Undyne’s friend who adopted a child several years ago.

Mrs. Slime was talking to Asgore when Papyrus offered a slice of pie.

“What’s that? Spaghetti pie?”

“NOPE, BUTTERSCOTCH CINAMON PIE. THE RECIPE IS FROM A FRIEND OF OURS.”

Asgore abandoned Mrs. Slime immediately for pie.

The children talked with their parents for a little while but quickly became bored and went outside to play in the snow. Papyrus and a few other parents joined them. Asgore stood nearby to watch them play, or more accurately watch the human-looking child play. He couldn’t recall ever knowing their parents.

Asgore was considering whom and how to ask about the strange child when someone leaned against the wall next to him.

“sup.”

“Oh, hello Sans.”

“say asgore, you ever heard of KR magic?”

“Um…it sounds familiar.” Sans’ casual tone caught him off guard.

“It should, the royal scientist before alphys experimented with it. Anyway, it deals damage, in accordance with one’s execution points.” He smiled at the playing children. “Innocents like any of those kids, they’d take one damage, barely even feel it. But someone with your LOVE….y o u w o u l d b e d e a d w i t h o n e h i t…” Asgore felt his sins crawling on his back. “anyway, nobody expects you to know everyone or everything that goes on in the Underground. my advice is not to worry so much.”

Sans didn’t spare Asgore another glance. As if their conversation never happened he joined the human child, MK, wolf cub, and Papyrus at their snow fort. He didn’t participate in the actual snowball fight just sat behind the fort building snowballs for the others.

On second thought, it wasn’t the king’s job to play inquisitor. If the whole Snowdin community, royal sentries, and even Undyne saw nothing wrong, why should Asgore get involved?

First thing Saturday morning found Frisk bouncing excitedly in front of their friend’s house. They balanced two big woven baskets in their arms and wore their favorite new outfit. Frisk and Papyrus went to a costume party last week. Their battle bodies were too cool to wear just once, so now they wore them almost all the time. Frisk's was stripped to indicate they were a child. Frisk wasn't allowed to wear theirs to school, which was unfair because Papyrus could wear his to work. They had tried and failed to get Sans to dress up. He helped them make both their outfits, though so half-win.

MK’s mother opened the front door. “Hello Mrs. Monster. Can MK come out and play?”

“Hello, Frisk.” Mrs. Monster smiled. “Where are you going today?”

“To Sans’ secret Water Sausage patch. Then we might look around Waterfall a little bit.”

“MK, Frisk his here!”

“Hiya! Frisk!” MK came running, they managed not to fall on their face this time.

“Sans and I are going gathering, do you want to come?”

“Moma, may I?”

“Sure, just behave for Sans, alright?”

“We will!” MK crouched so Frisk could set one of the baskets on their head. Then they walked back to Frisk’s house.

Sans dozed on the front porch while he waited for them. “Daddy!” Frisk shouted to wake him.

“hey kids. Ready to go?”

“Yep!”

Because MK was with them, Sans led them on a bit of a walk rather than just teleporting. Frisk knew what was up but MK still thought he used some sort of secret tunnels. As a reptile suited to underground life, MK was great at slithering between rocks.

“Here we are.” Sans led them out of a dark overhang to his gardens. He kicked a mushroom by the entrance so they could see better. They were in/below Waterfall. A stone alcove created a large pool of semi-still water. Rushing water behind stone made the tranquil area loud, and obvious why the place was inaccessible to anyone who couldn’t teleport, swim upstream, or phase through walls. “Go nuts.”

Frisk and MK took this as their cue to dash off. Despite Sans’ laid back attitude he kept an eye on them. One side was a sharp drop into rapids and he did plan to sell these water sausages later. Sans previously taught the kids how to correctly assess and harvest ripe seed bundles. They were tasty for only a short while. Picked too soon they tasted like grass; too late and they exploded when you bit them.

Frisk balanced their basket on their head, the horn headband was useful for this. They used both hands to sort through reeds in the semi-dark. Frisk pinched a seed pod, carefully pulled it off the stem, then tossed it up into their basket. MK tested one with their teeth only to have it explode in their face. This happened fairly often but still made them laugh.

When the kids weren’t looking Sans pulled up a few edible roots and collected dying leaves that could be dried and woven into new baskets later. Taking care of a kid was expensive. He couldn’t be as lazy has he used to be when it was just him and Papyrus.

MK tossed another seed pod into the air with his teeth. When tilting his head back for the throw one fell out of the basket with a splash. He caught the latest one in the basket. “All done.” He walked towards Sans, who met him halfway before he could trip and faceplant. “Frisk!”

“Just a minute,” Frisk finished filling their basket. Fisk gave Sans their basket then asked for a favor. “Can you take us to the Waterfall entrance?”

“Do you have your phone?” Frisk nodded and pull their cellphone out of their pocket. It had almost a full charge. “ok. You know the rules; be back for dinner.”

“We will!”

The children went off by themselves. Of course, one was rarely alone for long in the crowded underground. They said hi to several familiar monsters as they walked. Frisk politely let the monster explain how echo flowers worked, for the fiftieth time.

MK paused to record a long rant about how awesome Undyne was in an echo flower. They left the flowers mostly alone other than that. Playing pranks with echo flowers (such as setting them all to fart noises) was an endless source of amusement. But today they were on a mission of exploration.

“This is so cool! Do you think we’ll see Undyne?” MK wagged their tail with excitement. They’d never gone this far into Waterfall.

“Maybe, Papy says she has a house here.” Frisk was more interested in getting to Hotland the long route rather than by shortcut or River Person.

“Your brother is so cool. Not as cool as Undyne though.” They had this argument many times.

“No, Papyrus is the coolest and then Sans and then Undyne.”

“You have to say that, they raised you.”

Frisk climbed on MK’s shoulders to reach a high ledge. They turned around and offered MK their gloved hand to bite, a feature of their battle body.

They reached a winding bridge. “Is this a puzzle?” Frisk asked as they encountered another dead end.

“Maybe, where does it go?” MK tried to find a landmark in the dark cave. Something snapped loudly. “What was that?” Before either child could react the planks under their feet gave way.

Frisk screamed then smacked their head on a broken piece of the bridge.

Sometime later Frisk woke. They sat up slowly and rubbed their bruised skull. They sat on a bed of flowers. That was weird. “MK?” They looked around for their friend. “Hello?! Anyone?” Frisk checked themselves. HP 12/20 no broken bones. They got their phone out of their pocket but the screen was cracked. The device refused to turn on. Still a bit woozy, Frisk got to their feet and surveyed their surroundings. Heaps of trash floated in shallow water. The dump, they’d never been here. Digging through piles of garbage was too risky for children, there could be needles or other dangerous things.

Frisk considered their options. They could stay here and wait for someone to find them. Someone must have heard that bridge collapse and monsters scoured the dump semi-regularly, someone would come by eventually. Then again, MK could be hurt somewhere nearby. Frisk remembered Gerson’s home was near the dump. He would know what to do.

Filled with determination, Frisk waded into the water. They searched for MK but didn’t see them. Their head hurt, they should find help.

“Howdy!” Frisk slipped and splashed face first into the dirty water. “Ah gee, did I scare you buddy?” Frisk pushed their hair out of their eyes. The source of the voice made Frisk freeze. A flower with a face grinned at them from the patch of grass. “Golly, what’s with that look? Don’t you know how to greet a pal?”

“Hi.” Frisk found their feet again, just in case they had to run. “Who are you?”

“Why I’m Flowey, Flowey the flower. What’s your name?”

“Frisk.”

“Frisk. Frisk the human.”

Frisk tried to tell Flowey they didn’t know what he was talking about. Flowey started an encounter. Frisk always felt a tug on their soul when this happened but the shirt stopped it from appearing. To Frisk’s surprise their soul flew out of their chest. Frisk wrapped both hands around it fruitlessly. They only then noticed the large gash across the front of their sweater and shirt. “Hey, lookie, I was right.” Flowey winked and stuck his tongue out at Frisk. “Neat clothes you got there, Pal.”

“I don’t want to fight you.”

“Heh heh it’s not me you’ll be fighting. I mean, I could kill you, but that wouldn’t do any good would it? The only way I’m getting rid of you is to break your determination. Which shouldn’t be too hard, after all,” His face turned creepy. “you don’t belong here.” He laughed then disappeared under the ground.

Frisk breathed a sigh of relief. Relief turned out to be premature a second later when Flowey’s voice echoed off stone walls. “HUMAN! DANGEROUS BLOOD THIRSTY HUMAN ON THE LOOSE! EVERYBODY RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!”

Frisk felt for their horns, those were gone too. Don’t panic. What to do? If they ran they could maybe get lost in the crowd or find someone they knew. But that was risky. Frisk chose the nearest pile of garbage and climbed it. They almost fell twice but managed to find a decent place to hide. Sans and Papyrus would hear the warning sooner or later, they would come looking. Or Undyne would. Frisk didn’t know Undyne very well but surely Frisk could convince her to call Papyrus and confirm Frisk’s identity. Frisk just needed an excuse for not having horns. Maybe they broke off in the fall?

Frisk waited. Soon heavy footsteps disturbed the shallow water. “Who’s there?! Show yourself!” It was Undyne and she was angry. Frisk stayed still. They were a good little monster hiding from the human and not getting in Undyne’s way. Frisk could try talking to her when she calmed down. “Damn, is that dust?” Dust? MK! Frisk leaned forward a little bit to try to see. This was a mistake.

Something in the trash pile shifted and made Frisk fall. Undyne hurled a spear at Frisk though the semi-dark. That was dangerous what if Frisk really was a monster? Frisk only had a second to contemplate that before being hit by the magical spear. It barely hurt but it summoned Frisk’s soul.

All thoughts of talking to Undyne forgotten, Frisk bolted in a panic. Undyne screamed a warcry.

Hotland was good for something, free heating. Right now the heat was cooking hot dogs and hot cats and drying two reed baskets made by Pap and Frisk. Papyrus had taken up basket-weaving and crocheting, in addition to improving his cooking skills. The activities were something he could share with Frisk and kept his mind off the fact that he still wasn’t a royal guard. Most of his and Frisk’s creations were used by the family or gifted to friends, but the particularly good ones were displayed on shelf in Lavender Bunny’s shop. She insisted she wasn’t a pawn shop but was willing to keep a few of their things on consignment. It was an extra gold here and there which went a long way when they had a kid to feed. They had hoped Frisk would require less food as they grew older but nope. The bigger Frisk got, the more they ate.

Sans’ phone rang and he answered it without concern.

“SANS!” Papyrus screamed in his non-existent ear. “WHERE IS FRISK?”

“waterfall with mk.” This sounded serious so he didn’t joke.

“SANS! THE ROYAL GUARD HAS JUST BEEN ALERTED THERE’S A HUMAN IN WATERFALL.” A chill settled in Sans’ bones. “AND FRISK ISN’T ANSWERING THEIR PHONE!”

“ok, we’ve talked about this.” He said with more calmness than he felt. He needed to keep Papyrus from panicking. “we know what to do.”

“YES, YES WE DO. PLEASE HURRY, SANS!”

With the fastest shortcut he could manage, Sans arrived in front of Undyne’s house. She wasn’t home. He’d been hoping to cut her off. Sans teleported to a Quiet Spot. He heard Undyne shouting but couldn’t tell where from. Curse these tunnels and their echoes.

“frisk!”

“Dad!” Frisk arrived at the entrance to the Dump. They looked relieved to see him for only a moment, then their eyes locked on something behind him. This warning gave Sans enough time to dodge most of the surprise attack. A vine aimed for his ribcage broke an arm instead. The flower was hiding somewhere nearby. “Daddy!” Frisk shouted in concern this time. They hesitated long enough for Undyne to appear behind them. Consequences be damned, Sans summoned half a dozen blasters and willed them to fire at anything not his family.

The cave echoed with laser fire and shouts as they finally reached eachother. Sans held tight to his kid and teleported them both to the edge of Snowdin woods.

The door to the Ruins appeared in front of them. Thankfully nobody else was in sight. Sans allowed himself a moment to relax and check on Frisk. The kid was in rough shape, covered with scratches. “Are you okay?” Of course they were more concerned with Sans.

“I’ll be fine, kiddo. That just took a bit out of me.” He retrieved two hot cats from his inventory, handed one to Frisk and ate the other himself.

“Sans,” Frisk was tearing up. “What are we going to do? Undyne…”

“Hey, don’t cry. Pap and I knew this was a possibility.” Speaking of Papyrus, Sans got out his phone and sent him a quick text. “We have a plan.”

“A plan?”

“Yep. We’re moving in with Mystery Door lady.”

“What?” Frisk looked at the Ruins door. “Does she know about me?”

“Nope but she won’t care. Heh. Y’know, a couple days before you fell down here, she asked me to promise her something. If a human ever came out of the Ruins, I wouldn’t hurt them. Funny how things work out huh?” He winked at the kid. “Papyrus is bringing our things. We’ll have to sneak out to get you food and stuff but that can’t be helped. Maybe you can talk to your friends through the door.” He tried to put a positive spin on things.

“MK…MK is…” Frisk started crying. “Dad, I’m sorry, everything is…” Asking them not to be sad was pointless so Sans just put an arm around their shoulders and let them cry. “If you hadn’t kept me…”

“I don’t regret that. You know Papyrus doesn’t either.” Frisk sniffed. Sans sighed. “Frisk, I’m going to tell you something but you have to promise to never repeat it, okay?” Frisk looked at him curiously. He gave them an expectant eyesocket raise.

“I promise.”

“Do you know what determination is?”

“The will to live.”

“Yep. Some beings have enough of the stuff to bend the rules a little bit, give themselves an extra chance to keep living. Like you.” He preformed a check on Frisk and summoned their red soul. “Let’s find your options menu.”

Papyrus hated being idle. And thus he hated this part of the plan.

At first they could keep Frisk always with them or people they trusted. But as Frisk grew they needed to start going places by themselves. They couldn’t keep Frisk cooped up, they had to learn to be independent. Which lead to the development of The Plan.

Papyrus asked Mystery Door Lady about how she felt about humans and convinced Undyne to include him in the Royal Guard alerts system.

Now, frustratingly he had to wait. Sans was out looking for Frisk but one of them had to stay near home in case Frisk made it back on their own. Papyrus stood at the transition between Waterfall and Snowdin. If Frisk came this way he would see them.

His phone chimed and he almost dropped it in his haste to retrieve it form his inventory. ‘we safe at door’

For once he could excuse Sans’ lazy texting. ‘We’ meant he had found Frisk. ‘at door’ meant Frisk had been discovered and they were waiting for him.

Papyrus sprinted home. He raided the kitchen first. He shoveled the contents of the fridge into their picnic basket. From the pantry he also added all the cans and packages of human food (that Gerson collected from the dump).

He ran upstairs to Frisk’s room. All three of their bedrooms were on the second floor. Frisk didn’t often have nightmares anymore but they still preferred the easy trip to Sans’ or Papyrus’ rooms. He grabbed their school backpack, and stuffed it full of books and their favorite toys.

Papyrus’s phone rang and he answered it without looking.

“PAPYRUS, what the heck!” It was Undyne, not Sans. “Your brother just shot laser skulls at me!”

“HE USED THOSE? ARE YOU ALRIGHT?”

“You knew he could do that?! Can you do that?! Why are you defending the human?! Did it call Sans ‘Dad’?”

“UNDYNE, UM, REMEMBER THE EARTHQUAKE WHERE HUMANS FELL FROM THE SURFACE?” Papyrus held the phone with his shoulder and finished collecting Frisk’s things.

“…Are you serious? Than Frisk is…I met them! They have horns.”

“OH THOSE ARE FAKE.”

“You’ve been lying to me this whole time!”

“NO! THE GREAT PAPYRUS DOESN’T LIE. I JUST, UH, REPEATED THE THINGS THAT SANS SAID.”

“I’m going to kill you nerds!!!!”

“I’M SORRY UNDYNE, BUT WE HAVE TO HIDE NOW. I’LL CALL ONCE FRISK IS SAFE.”

The timeline reset before he could finish packing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, I think canon Asgore would choose to be ignorant. He doesn't want to kill children and he's a bit cowardly.


	6. Consequences

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Family feels chapter.  
Writing this took longer than expected. I don't want to wait to post it.

Frisk tried to get their wet eyes to focus. Despite Sans’ best efforts, they kept tearing up. The incredible magic Daddy talked them through using couldn’t completely distract from the fact that MK was dead and their lives were ruined. The sudden darkness and bright lights didn’t help either.

At least the gold light was familiar. Like the gold stars. Specifically the one outside their house. Frisk looked about wildly. They weren’t in the forest anymore. The familiar sensations of Frisk’s front yard barely served to comfort them. The twinkling yellow star hovered benignly in front of Frisk. At their feet were the two baskets they had brought with them that morning.

The sound of the front door opening and closing startled Frisk. Sans stepped out of their house as if nothing were wrong. Frisk looked up. The light crystals in the ceiling were at morning light.

MK! Frisk abandoned the baskets and sprinted to their friend’s house. Sans called after them but they didn’t pay attention.

Frisk skidded to a stop on MK’s unshovled front stoop and frantically pounded on the door.

“Hello?” Mrs. Monster opened the door with a confused expression.

“MK?!” Frisk ducked past her into the warm house.

“Frisk?” MK looked up from their breakfast only to have Frisk tackle them. “Wah, Frisk! What’s up?” Frisk clung to their friend and tried not to cry more.

“Oh dear, is something wrong?” Mrs. Monster asked.

“nah, everything’s cool. Kiddo just had a bad dream.” Frisk finally looked away from MK when Sans’ familiar hand touched their shoulder. “come on, frisky, let’s get you home.” He gently pulled Frisk off their lizard friend. “Sorry, MK, don’t know if Frisk will be up to playing today.”

“Oh, no problem. Feel better, Frisk!” MK beamed as if he hadn’t just fallen to his death. Frisk numbly nodded and let Sans lead them home.

Frisk tried to ask something but couldn’t quite get out the words. They made a few confused and distressed sounds. “I know, buddy, I know.” Sans comforted them but didn’t say anything else until they got inside.

Papyrus looked up with surprise from where he was washing the dishes. “FRISK, BACK SO SOON? I THOUGHT…WAIT…WHAT HAPPENED?”

“we’re okay now. Just uh…I’ll tell you in a minute.”

Papyrus wanted to complain but a look at Frisk convinced him to wait. Frisk was calming down so Sans sat them on the couch.

“Is it this morning?” Frisk asked Sans.

“yep. You were about to fetch MK to collect water sausages.”

“So we just…went back in time.”

“heh, not we, kiddo, that was all you.”

“But…”

“I know how it works, theoretically. I’ve never been able to actually make a save file.”

Frisk considered this for a moment. “But you do, ‘time and space shenanigans’.”

“well yeah, I can cheat a little. But making a bridge and jumping forward in time a bit doesn’t actually break any rules. heh, I can show you the math if you want.”

“No thanks,” Frisk managed a small smile. “Then, I can ‘break the rules’?”

“determination is the secret ingredient, like turning the heat down.”

“ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT FATHER’S RESEARCH?” Papyrus peeked over the back of the sofa. “I MEAN, SURPRISE THE GREAT PAPYRUS HAS BEEN LISTENING IN THIS WHOLE TIME? AREN’T YOU ASTONISHED?”

Frisk and Sans smiled and didn’t mention that they had totally seen him sneak over. “yep, the old man was researching determination and save files before he disappeared.”

“Is how he became goopy?” Of course Frisk had told the brothers about meeting a strange monster in the woods. There had been quite a lot of shouts, arm waving, and hugging that evening.

“uh, don’t ask. Even if I could tell you it wouldn’t be a story for kids.”

“THAT’S NOT IMPORTANT RIGHT NOW! FRISK! RELATE TO US THE STORY OF HOW YOU CAME BACK IN TIME!”

Anything, even seeing your best friend die and almost being killed, could be helped by making a blanket fort in the living room, baking cookies, and watching Mettaton’s latest show; so that’s what they did. Sans was almost ready to leave and try to hunt down Flowey but Frisk needed his support, and help building a structurally sound pillow fort. And then Papyrus made sure Frisk fell asleep lying on top of Sans so he couldn’t sneak out during the night.

By Monday Frisk felt infinitely better and ready to return to school. Sans and Papyrus waved goodbye from the front porch while Frisk saved at the golden star and then walked to school.

Admittedly, Frisk had trouble focusing during classes. Who cared about condensation? Frisk could go back in time! I before E? What did that matter? Frisk could time travel!

Under their desk, Frisk accessed their options menu. They had this ability since they were three and fell underground? It required magic to access a menu but could humans on the surface do this if they learned magic?

Their history teacher passed out a quiz. Oh yeah, Frisk meant to study for this on Sunday. Wait… Frisk tried not to grin as they memorized the test questions.

Frisk answered their test with fill-in guesses. The teachers liked to save time on grading and teach the kids responsibility by having them grade each other’s papers. Tests were redistributed semi-randomly. Frisk ended up with Bunny Kid’s. Frisk got the satisfaction of marking the school bully’s incorrect answers with a big red X.

Frisk memorized the correct answers and then, with a grin, loaded their latest save file. Frisk paid attention this time as the world went dark and then gold. The familiar warmth of their save point in front of their house winked at them like it knew what Frisk was up to.

Beaming, Frisk waved goodbye to their family, not noticing that the brothers looked slightly less enthusiastic than they had been the first time around. Frisk skipped all the way to school and greeted MK happily. They sat in class and this time, despite being excited for the upcoming quiz, paid attention to lessons.

About an hour into the school day, the head mistress knocked on the classroom door. “Pardon the interruption, Frisk, your brother is here to pick you up.”

The whole class turned to look at Frisk. Frisk just blinked. This was different. The teachers prompted them into hurrying. Frisk quickly gathered their things and followed the head mistress to the front door.

Sans leaned against the front archway. He made a joke to the teacher but Frisk didn’t pay attention, something was off. Sans was tense and not looking at Frisk. When the head mistress left Frisk didn’t dare say a word, Sans never got mad. He’d be annoyed or frustrated when Frisk misbehaved, not angry. The only time Frisk had seen him genuinely furious was the one time Mrs. Slime said something about Papyrus being ‘retarded’.

“come on,” he said shortly, no puns or jokes. He just turned around. Frisk hurried after him. Sans didn’t slow down for them to catch up, just power walked home. Frisk was too nervous to make a peep and Sans continued to ignore their existence for the entire walk home.

Sans didn’t say anything until they were inside. The front door closed then he just stood in the middle of the living room in silence for a few seconds. Frisk fidgeted nervously.

“y’know, I was really worried. You scared me down to the bones, Kid. Did someone find you at school, one of your friends die? But nope,” he finally looked at Frisk but his eye sockets were dark. Frisk shivered, they’d seen Sans do that before but somehow could tell it wasn’t a joke this time. “what’d you do? Cheat on a test?” Frisk stared at the floor and fidgeted with the hem of their sweater. “heh, right, I knew this was a bad idea.” Sans said this quieter, almost to himself. What was a bad idea? Adopting Frisk? That hurt more than the scary face. “I can’t look at you right now, go to your room.” Frisk automatically sprinted to the stairs. They ran to their bedroom. “And don’t you dare reset!” Sans’ shout echoed after them right before they shut themselves in.

Frisk collapsed against their closed door and tried to process what just happened. Sans, their self-proclaimed ‘fun dad’ just got angry, shouted at them. Sans wasn’t scary, Sans snuck them extra desert and let them sleep in his bed after a nightmare.

Frisk hugged their knees. So what if they went back in time? It’s not like anybody got hurt. It was just a stupid test. It was their magic. Why couldn’t they use it? Sans and Papyrus could use their magic. Actually, that wasn’t quite true.

Objectively, Frisk knew that everyone in their family had really powerful magic, but that had never registered as something potentially frightening until now. Come to think of it, Sans and Papyrus had always been really, really careful with their abilities.

Frisk must have sat in the dark for quite a while because the front door opened. Papyrus returned home.

“SANS! WHAT ARE YOU DOING? YOU’RE SUPPOSED TO BE AT YOUR STATION!” Frisk couldn’t hear Sans’ answer. “WHAT? WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?”

The brothers went into the kitchen then because Frisk couldn’t pick out more of their conversation. They heard Papyrus’ voice but didn’t understand the words.

“hey, kiddo, can we talk?” Frisk startled when Sans unexpectantly knocked on their door. “you uh, don’t have to open the door if you don’t want to. I get I kinda crossed a line earlier.” Frisk stood but didn’t feel like coming out yet. “I was really upset by what you did but I still shouldn’t a shouted at you. So, sorry ‘bout that.”

Frisk didn’t feel like being angry for longer either so they quickly opened the door and tackled Sans. He caught them with a hug. “Daddy?” Frisk still had something to ask. “was adopting me a bad idea?”

“what! No way Frisk. Why would you…oh right…come-on let’s sit down.” He and Frisk sat on Frisk’s bed. “Ok, so one time-space shenanigan I didn’t mention, I…remember past timelines.” Admitting this was difficult for him. “And what I can’t remember I keep a record of in the back room.”

“Your-not-so-secret-lab?”

“Yeah, my lab that still qualifies as a secret if only three people know about it.”

"Four counting Grandpa."

“I’m trying to teach you an important life lesson, stop distracting me. Okay, short version, don’t play around with the timestream or you’ll end up like W.D.”

“Goopy?”

“Not just ‘goopy’, trapped in the Void beyond all space and time, with all memory of you wiped from existence.” Frisk gaped at him.

“Nobody remembers Grandpa? But he built The Core.”

“Pap tell you that?” Frisk nodded. “Unprompted or did you have to remind him?”

“I thought that was just Pappy being forgetful.”

“Nope, check your history book sometime. Don’t ask your teacher though, that’ll just give them a headache. Anyway, long version; the timeline isn’t supposed to go backwards. Your determination can force it but that’s not how it’s supposed to work. You know what happens when you play with something too rough for too long right?” He indicated a couple of the older action figures on Frisk’s shelf. The ones that had arms taped back into their sockets; that used to belong to Papyrus until young Frisk broke them. “It gets easier to break. And when something as important as space-time gets a hole in it….”

“Oh,” Frisk felt really bad now. “I’m sorry, Dad. I shouldn’t have played with it.”

“I also could have explained it better. You’re just a kid, you’re not built to think about long term consequences.” He said calmly but then became deadly serious again. “But, seriously Frisk, don’t ever, ever reset unless it is absolutely necessary.”

“I promise, I won’t.”

Sans patted their head. “Good. Now come on, Papyrus probably has a whole speech on the safe use of magic prepared.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's another bit I couldn't figure out how to work into the story proper. 
> 
> “SANS!”  
“sup bro?”  
“WHY IS THERE A VIDEO CALLED ‘WHEN PAPYRUS ISN’T HOME’ TRENDING ON UNDERNET?”  
“It’s trending?”  
Later, the three of them broke into Undyne’s house to do a follow up video with Papyrus on her piano.


	7. Final Plot

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This just keeps getting longer.

Frisk was forgiven for their behavior but still grounded. They had to spend afternoons training with Sans and Papyrus, rather than play with friends. This wasn’t much of a punishment in itself but they did have to admit to their friends that they had tried to cheat and gotten caught.

In the past training was mostly with Papyrus but this time Sans had something to teach Frisk as well. He parked Frisk in in his lab and explained endless equations until Frisk was able to make multiple saves. He worried Flowey would try to trick Frisk into saving over something bad. If Flowey killed someone without Frisk being aware of it and Frisk saved for the day, Frisk wouldn’t be able to bring that person back. The concern made Frisk determined to wade through hours of physics and code.

Frisk hoped they would never have to test it, but they were pretty sure they managed to ‘bookmark’ the first time they used their magic, earlier in the week. They would, probably, be able to load that Saturday morning. Plus they discovered they had the option to ‘Reset’. Which would likely take them back to when they first entered the Underground. That was an option of last resort. Frisk really didn’t want to find out what would happen if all their current memories were shoved into their three-year-old head. Still, Sans made notes of it in his special files, just incase he and Papyrus had to raise Frisk a second time.

Saturday morning, Frisk was in the not-so-secret-lab trying to wrap their head around wormholes and how they allowed Sans to teleport when Sans’ phone buzzed.

Sans didn’t often give out his phone number (as far as Frisk knew only Frisk, Papyrus, and Alphys had it) and he was too lazy to bother with Undernet most of the time. When his phone chimed it was probably something important so he answered it immediately. Frisk read over Sans’ shoulder.

_From Alphys_

_To: Undyne; Asgore; Sans; _

_I’m sorry everyone. I’m not good like you think I am. I’ve told so many lies. Now I need to face my mistakes. I’m sorry to send you a text like this but I need to do it this way so I can’t back out. If you don’t see me again, you can find my notes in the true lab. Those will explain everything._

Frisk glanced up from the ominous group text to Sans, who had frozen.

“You okay on your own for a bit, Kiddo? I should check on Alph.” Frisk nodded. “Lock up and tell Pap where I went if he asks.” He said with forced levity before disappearing.

Frisk frowned at their worksheets for a second before deciding to procrastinate. They obediently turned off the lights and locked the lab.

Papyurs stood outside, milling about like he often did when he had free time. “HELLO FRISK, I THOUGHT YOU WERE DOING THE SCIENCE.”

“Sans got a text from Alphys. Can I be ungrounded? Please?”

“UM… WELL…”

“I haven’t gotten to play with MK all week, please?”

“NO, NO, THE GREAT PAPYRUS DOESN’T GO BACK ON DECISIONS. A WEEK IS MONDAY, DON’T TRY TO CONFUSE ME.”

“Aw, how about if you join us and we practice blue magic?”

“WELL, THAT SHOULD BE FINE. BUT ARE YOU SURE ABOUT BLUE MAGIC? IT’S AWEFULLY ADVANCED FOR SOMEONE YOUR AGE, NOT TO MENTION DANGEROUS, PERHAPS YOU SHOULD LEARN SOMETHING ELSE FIRST.”

“I want blue magic!”

“HMM… YOU’RE ENTHUSAISM IS NOT ASSURING ME.”

“I’ve figured it out. Blue magic is gravity, right?”

“YES.”

“And gravity warps space-time!”

“OH DEAR. THAT SETTLES THAT, NO BLUE MAGIC UNTIL YOU MASTER BULLETS.”

“But I already do time shenanigans! Blue magic will just help me control it, I know it!”

“YOU CAN STILL LEARN THE BASICS FIRST.”

Frisk prepared to plead more but Pap’s phone rang. A lot of that happening today. “JUST A MOMENT, FRISK.” Papyrus answered and Frisk could hear Undyne shout through the phone.

“Papyrus where the heck are you? Get to Hotland now!”

“OH, UNDYNE! YES I’M ON MY WAY! IS SOMETHING WRONG?”

“Strange monsters are running loose, attacking people! Alphys is missing! Nobody knows what is going on! And I’m getting freaking heat stroke! No! Don’t let them…” the line went dead.

“OH DEAR, THAT SOUNDS SERIOUS.” He glanced at Frisk. “FRISK, GO TO MR. AND MRS. MONSTER’S HOUSE.” 

“Aye, aye, Papa!” Frisk saluted. Papyrus was satisfied with that answer and dashed off. He was excited enough that he forgot to obey the Earth’s gravity and floated over a few trees. Frisk shook their head, if you grew up around something it seemed normal. It took going back in time for Frisk to realize their family was weird. They really should have caught on sooner.

“Frisk!” MK was happy to see them. Frisk could barely say hello in response before they talked over them. “Did you hear Undyne is trying to catch some badguys in Hotland! Oh man! That is so cool! We should go watch.”

“I don’t know, MK, it sounds dangerous. We might be in the way.”

“Yeah, I guess.” MK pouted but had another idea. “How about we ask Alphys if we can watch with her cameras?”

“Can we go there?”

“Yeah! She’s my cousin, I don’t think I’ve ever introduced you!”

MK was going to go with or without Frisk so Frisk figured it would be safer for them to tag along. They told MK’s parents they were going to visit Alphys then got a ride with the River Person. “Everything is very liquid today.”

“Everything?” Frisk always tried chatting with the River Person, most of the time they were ignored but today River Person said something back.

“Everything.” River Person agreed.

“Wow.”

“Thanks for the ride River Person.” They waved goodbye as they stepped ashore in Hotland.

Everything looked fine on the short walk to the lab. MK headbutted the control panel and it opened for him. Rather than the sleek interior they expected, they walked into what looked like a mini-jungle. The walls were covered with thorny green roots.

“Whoa! This is so cool, what’s Alphys been doing?” MK marveled at the vines. Frisk wasn’t so sure. Frisk was about to suggest they leave when the lights went off. “MK! MK?”

The lights turned back on. MK was nowhere in sight, Flowey appeared twenty feet in front of Frisk.

“Where’s MK?” Frisk demanded.

“Aw, you want your friend? Come and get him!” Flowey laughed then disappeared into the shifting mass of plant matter. Frisk turned around and realized the door was covered with vines. The only opening in the green walls led to a staircase. Frisk frowned, this was obviously a trap but they couldn’t leave MK alone to die either.

They tried to keep an eye on all the many, many roots surrounding them as they quickly got out their phone. “sos al lab” good enough, they didn’t want to let their guard down long enough to type more. They sent that text to their contacts list. Come to think of it, Sans was supposed to be checking on Alphys. Was he here too? This could be bad. They hit Sans’ number to call. It just kept ringing. Sans hadn’t set up a voicemail.

They could stand here waiting for Papy and/or Undyne to arrive but Flowey would probably kill any hostages. Frisk felt filled with determination as they chose to descend the stairs.

“Hello?” Frisk called into the darkness below but nobody answered. They cautiously walked into the basement. In the middle of a dimly lit room, they found Flowey. He swayed side to side as if enjoying a little breeze. He smiled at Frisk as they came closer.

"All you need in this world to exist is determination. And thanks to the guilt riddled idiot who made me in the first place I’ve got an easy source of it. If I get much more determination than this, I’ll start melting. Hee hee, I tried it once.” Flowey stuck out his tongue and winked. “You know, I was planning to kill you again, over and over until you gave up. But…When you didn’t come out of your house I looked through the window. Saw that disgustingly sweet weekend you got to have. You stole my game to play house with Trash and Bonehead? Why do you get to have perfect everything!? It’s not fair…” Flowey pouted but continued his speech after a only a second of sulking.

“I can’t feel anything now but I remember what that’s like; having a family. There’s no way to break your determination when you’ve got that to fall back on, right? You’d reset all the way back to the quake if you had to, wouldn’t you? I knew I could never win. And well… maybe I’m a little lonely after all this time. The King and Her…they can’t make me happy but there’s one person I’ll always feel something for.”

Frisk heard someone behind them. They didn’t turn around quickly enough. Pain exploded on the top of their head. They tried to see who attacked them but their eyes wouldn’t cooperate. All they could see was the floor. Suddenly, it wasn’t just their vision that was spinning, their whole body was thrown through the air. Their back slammed into something hard. Their head hit it a moment later, making everything black.

Frisk blinked but it was still dark. The raised their hands and hit a roof directly above them. A loud humming filled the air. The metal Frisk lay on began to vibrate. Frisk started to feel very tired. This was bad.

…

Flowey flipped the switch to power the DT Extractor. The echoes of Frisk hitting the inside of their prison didn’t worry him.

“How long is this going to take?”

“Maybe twenty seconds,” Flowey grinned at his companion. The human skeleton huffed and tossed their knife between their hands. Flowey wished Chara looked a bit more like their old self, but beggars couldn’t’ be choosers. He was lucky there was anything left of his best friend at all.

“Someone’s at the door.” Flowey felt a tug on several of his vines. “I’ll get it.” He said before disappearing.

Chara watched the DT Extractor glow and listened to Frisk bang on the metal with mild-disinterest.

…

It took Sans too long to realize Frisk needed help. He’d been distracted by first trying to find Alphys, and then listening to her rambled explanation. She hadn’t gone to the dump, thankfully, rather to Asgore. Alphys confessed to the creation of the Amalgamates and then, worryingly, to being blackmailed by a flower. Sans should have high-tailed it the second she said that. Instead he stuck around to listen to the rest of her story. The flower she accidentally brought to life threatened to tell everyone about her mistakes if she didn’t give him the rest of her stored DT and extract more from the souls. She also felt guilty for creating him in the first place so she complied. When he returned with the bones of a dead human child and ordered her to inject the corpse with DT; she refused. Flowey trapped her in her lab and threatened to kill the Amalgamates if she didn’t do as he said. She gave in sometime yesterday, bringing the dead child back to ‘life’. She was locked in a closet overnight and only allowed to leave this morning.

Alphys barely finished her tale when The king received a message that strange monsters were causing panic in Hotland. Alphys worried they might be her patients.

Sans finally checked his phone only to realize he somehow missed an SOS from Frisk. He teleported to the top floor of Alphy’s lab. The whole place had been taken over by the flower. No sign of Frisk and it sounded like someone was outside, trying to break down the front door. Sans took a shortcut to the true lab.

The skeleton standing in front of the machinery clearly wasn’t a monster. It’s bones were off-white, still caked with dirt in some places, and held together with tiny vines. If this person had hurt Frisk he was going to make them wish they had stayed in the ground.

“Where the hell is Frisk!”

…

Frisk felt sleepy. What was the point in fighting?

Wait, was that Sans? Hearing Daddy’s voice filled them with determination. They were getting out of here. “Free!”

…

A roar and explosion startled Chara into ducking. Smoke filled the dimly lit room, a few sparking wires replaced the steady glow of the DT Extractor. The dust settled, revealing two figures of almost the same height. Frisk held a hand to their headwound. Sans held them upright. He spared a final glare at Chara before teleporting.

Meanwhile, Papyurs successfully broke down the front door only to be greeted by Flowey trying to skewer him. Training with Undyne made these vines easy to block. He attempted to turn Flowey blue and was surprised when nothing happened.

“Something not working, Bonehead? Almost like, I don’t have a soul, huh?”

“Oh, Flowey,” Papyrus teared up at the idea of existing without a soul. “THAT’S TERRIBLE. NO WONDER YOU NEED FRIENDS.”

“Wha…You don’t get to feel sorry for me!”

“right behind you, bro.”

“SANS! FRISK! ARE YOU ALRIGHT?”

“No wait! MK!” Frisk leaned around the brothers to see the lab. Worryingly, Flowey looked far too smug for this to be over.

The ground shook, Frisk barely heard a loud noise before a solid wall of something hit them.

Everything went dark. A consciousness floated in the blackness. For a minute they didn’t move or think, then they blinked. Opening or closing their eyes made no difference. They had never seen anything so dark. It wasn’t even really black, it was just…nothing. They wanted to look down, see if they could see their hands but…did they even have hands? Who were they? “YOU CAN DO IT, FRISK!” “Stay determined, kiddo.” A happy memory rang out in the nothingness.

That’s right. They were Frisk. They had more important things to do than disappear. LOAD


	8. Frisk Defeats the Final Plot

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Frisk perceives magic as music. What does it look like to be inside a game that has been turned off? And, who do you think made the barrier?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter will be the ending, for real, for real. I was going to rush it but then I decided, nah, let's have Frisk Gaster do a proper journey through the underground. Will be up in a couple days, promise.

**LOAD**

Morning; only this time Frisk was pissed. They stomped into their house and threw open the front door in their best Papyrus imitation. “Sans!”

“hey kiddo, what…”

“How much do you remember?” Firsk interrupted him. He went still for a moment, meaning he was considering, then his eyes blacked out.

“You died?”

“I think so. Something happened.”

“they must have blown the core, damn.” Sans muttered this to himself. Sans was thinking so Frisk ran upstairs to fetch Pappy. Sans continued to sit stone still as Frisk knocked on Papyrus’ door and dragged him downstairs while explaining things quickly.

“they’ve set up a hostage situation,” Sans added. “frisk, you may have to use your save from last week.”

“WAIT, LET’S SEE IF WE CAN TALK TO THEM FIRST.” Papyrus called Alphys’ number and put it on speaker phone.

“H-h-hello, Alphys’ phone.” Flowey made fun of her stutter when he answered.

“FLOWEY, YOU AND YOUR FRIEND CAN BE FRIENDS WITH US. WE DON’T HAVE TO FIGHT.”

“Ssooo tempting. Let’s live as a flower and a walking corpse. Where our parents are divorced and we’re trapped underground. Or we could be gods of this existence. Why not let us have Frisk’s determination? We’ll put it to better use.”

“Life isn’t a game, Flowey!”

“It is when you’re God, Frisk.”

“yeah, you two are great gods. How’d your first life turn out, your highness?”

“Oh you’re so smart, Trash. It’s only the hundredth time I dropped enough hints for you to figure that out.” Flowey taunted. “Anyway, Chara and I are sitting on a bomb. Right Frisk? So don’t try anything or Hotland will get a lot hotter,” Flowey laughed then hung up.

“Should I load?” Frisk asked.

“not yet, nobody’s died.”

“DO YOU KNOW FLOWEY, SANS?”

A quick family meeting later, they decided that Sans would try to power down the core without getting too close to the lab, while Papyrus and Frisk recruited mystery door lady and the king. Sans said he wasn’t positive who Mystery Door Lady was but if he was right, than she may be the only one who could talk Flowey into being reasonable. Flowey had access to Alphy’s cameras so they couldn’t order an immediate evacuation of Hotland.

Papyrus sprinted to towards the Ruins, pausing only to take out any cameras. Frisk rode on Papyrus’s shoulders and used Papy’s phone to text Mr. and Mrs. Monster and tell them to keep MK at home. Their outfits had been designed for Papyrus to carry Frisk this way so it was easy for Frisk to hang on with just their legs.

The lady didn’t answer when Papyrus knocked on the Ruins door. “HM, WE DON’T HAVE TIME TO WAIT. THIS IS IMPORTANT. FRISK, DON’T LOOK FOR A SECOND.” Papy backed up a few paces then walked quickly into the Ruins. Frisk obediently covered their eyes but could still feel the weightlessness when Papyrus went through the door.

“Gravity magic?”

“UM…ASK SANS.”

The Ruins were oddly silent. There were supposed to be frogits and other monsters living here Frisk didn’t hear or see anybody. Papyrus became increasingly agitated as they searched for someone, anyone. 

“Papy I don’t like it here.” Frisk was trying to convince Papyrus to abandon their goal and retreat home when the whole world lurched. It was the oddest sensation, and Frisk had felt a lot of those recently, like they were falling but nothing moved. Everything became quiet and still, even Papyrus.

“Papy? Papa?!”

“OH FRISK! SORRY, I…WHAT HAPPENED?”

“I don’t know. This doesn’t feel like dying.” It felt a little bit like Grandpa’s gray room. Normally Frisk could feel magic moving around them, even hum along with it if they concentrated. Now, the air was frozen.

Papyrus and Frisk tried their phones but neither device responded. On a hunch, Frisk took a snack out of their inventory. The monster food was too hard to bite. Even if Frisk managed to swallow it, they had the feeling it wouldn’t turn into energy like it was supposed to. Next they tried to call up their options menu but nothing happened.

Papyrus agreed to leave the Ruins and try to find Sans. The caves around them no longer echoed. Frisk couldn’t feel a breeze on their face to match Papyrus’ quick pace.

Leaving the Ruins was even more concerning. Snowdin woods wasn’t cold. Papyrus’ boots didn’t make any sound or footprints in the snow. When they reached Snowdin they shouted for their friends and neighbors but nobody came.

The ever-present fog between Snowdin and Waterfall hung in the air like a blanket. They pushed it out of the way and left a Papyrus and Frisk sized hole in the water droplets behind them.

Ripples frozen place on still water greeted them in a silent Waterfall. Frisk was glad Papyrus carried them, because they were well and truly scared now. Frisk was alive but now it felt like the world itself had died.

Papyrus ran through a few walls in his hurry so they made good time through Water-not-falling. Frisk looked up as they suddenly felt something moving again. They felt magic vibrating nearby but not like they were used to. Off-key and ear-hurting, it reminded Frisk of the times Bunny Kid would scratch the blackboard just to be mean.

Papyrus followed the sounds until they found the encounter. A giant undulating pile of mismatched parts was making the terrible magic. It took Frisk a minute to realize it was one being. It didn’t look like a monster and certainly not a human. It looked like a nightmare junk pile with a contorted human face displayed on a TV. Under the screeching of it’s twisted magic Frisk could almost hear a nicer tune.

The familiar feel of Sans’ magic finally drew Frisk’s stare away from the abomination. Sans ducked under what almost looked like human weapons the creature threw at him.

“why do I get the feeling we’ve done this before?”

“SANS!” Papyrus sprinted to join Sans, not minding the moving trash pile.

“hey, I missed you guys. But my aim’s getting better.” Sans gave them finger guns as if nothing were wrong but Frisk could see a drop of sweat on his skull.

“SANS, REALLY? NOW!?”

“Put me down. Help Sans.” Frisk demanded and squirmed in Papyrus’ arms.

“FRISK?”

“It’s okay Pappy, once we beat them I’ll be able to load again. So don’t worry about using your magic.”

“WELL, ALRIGHT.” Papyrus joined the battle.

Frisk waited at the edge of the encounter. Over the unnatural sound of Flowey’s distorted magic they could just sense someone behind them. At the last second they ducked out of the way of the sneak attack. The slash didn’t even catch the edge of their battle body.

The magic of an encounter settled around Frisk. Chara missed.

As their first action, Frisk stuck out their tongue at the creepy being. “Once is humorous, twice makes me a numbskull.”

“Hilarious.” Chara didn’t look like a skeleton monster at all. Their movements were jerky and uncoordinated. Their face barely moved as they talked. “Give us your soul and then we can finally end this world.”

“Are you really Chara Dreemur?” Frisk asked. Chara’s pointed silence was answer enough. Frisk didn’t bother to hide their surprise. It was like meeting fantasy characters, only to learn they were evil. Frisk glanced briefly at the too bright creature the former prince had turned into. Papyrus’ bone fences were often too wide to stop people from walking through but worked wonders to block attacks. Now that Sans no longer had to exhaust himself dodging, he could launch attack after attack into Flowey’s massive body.

“Will you obey your prince, then?” Chara attacked Frisk with the real knife. Frisk dodged easily and frowned at how their rattling bones sounded compared what they were used to hearing. Their turn.

“You know Chara, you died too soon.” Frisk grinned. “You never learned the benefits of growing up as a monster.” They raised their right hand. A floating beast skull appeared at their gesture. It glared down at Chara with heart-red eyes. Frisk smiled cheerfully and pointed at Chara, prompting the blaster to fire a laser. Chara rolled to the side only to land in the path of a second blaster. This blast landed and burned away the vines holding Chara’s knife-wielding hand together. Their arm bones and knife clattered to the ground.

“Aren’t they cute?” A blaster floated on either side of Frisk whom happily rubbed their skulls. “They come from my soul so this is Free” they scratched the horn of the left blaster and then the right one “and this is Risk. Even Papyrus says those are good names.”

“You can use magic?” Chara said with not a little jealousy. They used their action to regrow and reassemble their arm.

“Of course humans can learn magic. Who do you think made the barrier?” Frisk dismissed their attacks. “I don’t want to hurt you anymore, will you please surrender?” Frisk is sparing you.

“blue magic sure is a drag when you aren’t immune, huh?” Frisk glanced at their brothers. They had Flowey mostly pinned while the nightmare growled at them. Chara attacked Frisk while they were turned away. Frisk side stepped again, they had been keeping Chara in the corner of their vision. They knew the difference between pretending to be distracted and really being distracted.

“Chara, I’ve been training since I was three. You aren’t going to hit me.”

“You can’t dodge forever.”

“FRISK!”

Frisk looked up in time to see one of Flowey’s attacks barreling towards them. They had the vague thought that Flowey cheated before blinding pain hit their soul. Their soul shuddered, trying to stay together in the face of terrible agony, before cracking. For a moment Frisk felt numb, no pain, no heartbeat, just a glimpse of that empty quiet place. That’s not where they belonged.

Another sharp jolt arced through their heart as Frisk’s soul snapped back together. They gasped awake against Papy’s chest. Papy jostled them as little as possible as he retreated to the edge of the encounter. Frisk must have only been out for a few seconds. Their brothers were still okay and the royal siblings were arguing.

“Chara, you were supposed to take their determination.”

“You were supposed to kill the bonehead.”

“I told you he was tough.”

“you back with us, kiddo?” Sans asked.

“Yeah, I’m okay.”

Chara shouted at them, sounding frustrated. “Just give up already.”

“Let us have you soul.”

“Soul…” Frisk looked at the six human souls Flowey held captive. “Fellow humans! My name is Frisk, these are my brothers Sans and Papyrus. Please, help us!”

“As if that would work,” Chara scoffed at them.

“Huh? The souls?” The six human souls stopped obeying Flowey. Sans gave them a helpful tug with blue magic and they ripped free of Omega Flowey.

“HELLO HUMANS!” Papyrus said happily to the souls now floating around the three of them.

“Grrr...Go ahead. Kill us.” Flowey said. “But that won’t bring back everyone we dusted in the Ruins.”

The skeleton family shared a look. Sans gave Frisk permission with a nod.

**LOAD SAVE FILE**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Did anyone guess who Free was?  
Frisk is canonically a tough little kid who takes on the entire underground and wins. And in this AU they've been training with Sans and Papyrus most of their life. Don't tell me they can't dodge a few attacks from Chara.


	9. Celeberty

LOAD SAVE FILE

Frisk blinked at the yellow save star. They were standing in the snow, two woven baskets at their feet. They picked these up and returned to the house.

Sans had stalled out in the living room. He shook his skull slightly and looked at Frisk when they came inside.

“Flowey told you he dug up Chara after today, right?” Sans double checked. Frisk nodded. “Okay, now we shouldn’t have a problem.” Sans didn’t sound particularly confident.

“…”

“just in case, I’ll make a few calls.”

Sans asked around but everything seemed normal.

Time travel was no longer fun. What did you do when you were the only ones to know something bad may or may not be about to happen? Frisk spent most of the day pacing the house. They couldn’t track Flowey, they didn’t know where Chara was buried. They didn’t even know if Flowey and Chara remembered what happened/what will happen in a week. They talked about everything what they might be able to do to prevent it. Papyrus' best suggestion was to talk to Alphys, 'if she has a secret that bad, she should tell someone'. They couldn't think of anything to do today, though. Papyrus attempted to drag the family out of their funk by preparing a large dinner and inviting MK’s family over.

The next morning, Papyrus insisted that there was no point in being gloomy. They should just go find Flowey and Chara themselves. “NO MORE SITTING AROUND! IF WE ARE SAD THEN WE ARE GOING TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT!” Papyrus carried Sans out the door while Frisk skipped next to him. They were happy to follow Papy’s lead in doing something proactive. Sans less so.

“do we have to?”

“YES! WE KNOW THEY AREN’T IN SNOWDIN SO FIRST STOP…DOOR IN THE WOODS!”

“Yay! Good idea!”

Nobody answered when they knocked on the Ruins door. Considering the circumstances, they decided to let themselves in. Frisk wanted to try walking through the door on their own, but the brothers didn’t let them.

They walked through a long hallway and out a normal looking house before meeting anyone.

“Hi! Have you seen a talking flower?” Frisk ran up to the first monster they saw. The whimsim shrieked and shot a few bullets at them before fleeing.

“wow, rude.”

The Frogits were more talkative and helpfull, “yellow flowers are that way.”

“Past all the puzzle rooms.” They pointed them in the correct direction. A couple Migosp shouted rude things at them as they walked past.

One Loox started an encounter, he did a quick check on Papyrus and then muttered an tossed a few apology coins and ran away. Frisk stuck out their tongue at the retreating bully.

Sadly for Papyrus all the puzzles were deactivated. They came to a room with a narrow hallway. The only path forward was blocked by a ghost lying down on a pile of leaves.

“zzzzz….” The ghost faked sleep worse than Sans.

“UM…EXCUSE US…?”

“zzzzzzz are they gone yet? zzzzz”

Sans turned around and walked back the way they came. “SANS GET BACK HERE!” Papyrus chased him and left Frisk alone. Frisk decided to try walking around the monster. They didn’t make it. Their snowboot swished the edge of the ghost’s head by accident.

The ghost started crying. Their tears shot at Frisk like bullets. Frisk wasn’t sure if they were attacking on purpose, or were just so flustered they were doing so by accident. To be fair Frisk had stepped on them.

“Sorry, I stepped on you. I didn’t mean to upset you. It’s just really important that I get further into the Ruins.” Frisk gave the ghost a friendly smile.

“Ooh, you’re talking to me? I’m just so nervous…”

Frisk kept smiling encouragingly.

“You seem nice. Can I show you something?” They used their bullet/tears to make a top hat. “I call it dapper Blook. Do you like it?”

“It looks good. And that’s a cool way to use magic.”

“Aw gee. Normally I come to the Ruins because nobody is around. But today I met someone nice.”

“It’s nice to meet you too, Napstablook. I live in Snowdin if you ever want to visit.”

“Oh, wow. Um…I’ll move out of your way.”

Frisk found a save star in the next room. After some consideration, they decided not to use it. In the room beyond that, Sans and Papyrus were discussing whether pushing rocks in a straight line counted as a puzzle or not.

After rejoining with their brothers, Frisk and Papyrus finally found a couple puzzle room that were active. Frisk was disappointed with the quality of the puzzles, they were just memorization or falling and climbing back out, not exactly a brain teaser. Sans teleported past them all of course.

“What’s in this room?” Frisk ducked into a side room quickly. Frisk gasped. “Spiders! Hi!” They crouched near the webs.

“Surprisingly cheap,” Sans muttered about their prices. Although he supposed there wasn’t much demand in the Ruins.

“We’re going to Waterfall and Hotland after this. Daddy, Papy, can I carry a couple of them?” Frisk asked for permission.

“eh sure, why not?”

“AS LONG AS EVERYONE IS CAREFUL.”

“Okay!” Frisk unwound their scarf slightly. “I have room for two or three of you if you want a ride to Waterfall.”

The spiders communicated quickly amongst themselves. Two accepted Frisk’s offer and settled on their shoulders under their scarf. A third handed Frisk a doughnut as thanks.

As they neared a long stone corridor, someone called out them. “Who’s there?!” A familiar voice sounded unfamiliarly angry.

“HELLO! THE GREAT PAPYRUS AND FAMILY ARE HERE.” Papyrus of course didn’t hesitate to introduce them.

“That voice, are you…” A goat looking monster approached them. For usually being friendly she seemed oddly cautious now.

“yo.”

“Hi!” Sans and Frisk waved to try and put her at ease.

“Oh, it is you.” She smiled. “What are you three doing here.”

“Long story, but basically looking for a talking flower. You seen one?” Sans said.

“Talking flower… no, I’m sorry. This isn’t really a good time.”

“YOU SEEM DISTRESSED, FRIEND.”

“something happen?”

She seemed hesitant to tell them. “Did a skeleton disappear?” Frisk asked.

“How did you know?” The female monster came a bit closer to them only to pause and stare at Frisk.

“Flowey said he was going to do that.” Frisk glanced at their brothers, not a lie.

“SO FLOWEY ALREADY DUG UP HIS FRIEND?” Papyrus checked.

“yep.”

“WELL NOW WE ABSOLUTELY HAVE TO FIND THEM. DO YOU WANT TO COME WITH US?”

The monster introduced herself as Toriel and agreed to join them searching the Ruins.

Toriel hung back with Sans while Frisk and Papyrus eagerly attacked the reactivated puzzles.

In one room Frisk and Papyrus happily jumped down holes looking for a switch.

“Parden me my friend, what kind of monster did you say Frisk was?”

  
“I didn’t.”

Shouts echoed out of one hole in the floor. “FRISK! DID YOU BITE HIM!”

“He asked me to!”

Sans snickered before becoming serious again. “Did you ever hear? some humans fell into Snowdin during that quake years back.”

“Oh…” Toriel didn’t ask any further questions.

The rest of the walk through Ruins was uneventful. At the door to Snowdin woods, Sans paused.

“your spider friends all bundled up for the cold?” Frisk nodded. “can’t see anything?” He checked. “hey, since Frisk chose to play taxi the two of us will take a shortcut to Hotland. You guys okay to search Snowdin? We’ll meet up waterfall.”

“OKAY DOKIE.”

Sans had an illegal hotdog stand there so Frisk knew Hotland decently well. The puzzles were endlessly entertaining for energetic children and the monsters who lived there were usually friendly (almost too friendly in the case of Tsunderplane). Frisk occasionally won gold from the teenagers who hung out in the woods or as a gift from Gyftrot for undecorating him. Whenever they had money they spent it on cooking ingredients, gifts, or donated it to the spiders. Stay away from the spiders unless you want to empty your pockets to prove you don’t have any more gold to spend. Frisk didn’t mind giving away gold to the spiders. Their story was sad and they would give Frisk old, stale donuts in exchange for whatever spare change Frisk had. The fact that the spider pastries even went stale proved they had a bit more sustenance to them than most monster food. They actually filled Frisk’s tummy a little bit.

When Frisk and Sans arrived, nobody was at the spider’s bake sale stall. Strange. Frisk went to the Spider’s nest building. Sans didn’t follow them in.

“Hello?” Frisk didn’t see anybody in the dark. They knelt and let the two spiders out of their battle body. This got the attention of the entire Hotland nest.

“Hello, Dearie. You’re that poor child who buys our old wares.” Muffett floated down on a web. Frisk didn’t mind being called poor, it was a step up from stingy. “Thank you for carrying some of our family back from the Ruins.” She giggled in a worrying way. “Hm, I hate to do this to you but because you are a friend of spiders. Perhaps you’ll agree? A handsome stranger just paid us a lot of money to pick a fight with you. What do you say?”

Frisk glanced to the door where Sans was waiting outside. “Well… as long as nobody gets hurt.”

“Excellent!”

On their first turn Frisk stood very still to listen. “Muffett, is this your magic? Oh…my…god…I LOVE IT! Spider dance! Spider dance!”

“Tee hee, you’re sweet. Keep up, Dearie.”

Frisk cheered and leapt from web to web after the spiders. They threw stale pastries at Frisk like bullets. It cost Frisk a couple HP to catch each one and pocket it for later, but they did so anyway. 

“We can’t hurt such a loyal customer.” Muffett ended the fight even though Frisk wouldn’t have minded eating a bit to heal and continuing.

Frisk bid goodbye to the spiders and went back to Hotland. Sans looked at Frisk who was covered in webs and flakes of dough. “have fun?” Frisk nodded.

“Wasn’t that a great show?!” Mettaton flew up from a lower level of Hotland. “What a wonderful dance number by the spiders and…this young monster whom somebody told me was a human but must be mistaken. Shame, I so wanted a human on my show. But your cute little face is helping my ratings so what do you say? Stick around for the rest of my show today? I have things set up for two anyway.”

“Only if my brothers join.”

Mettaton reluctantly agreed to Frisk’s ultimatum and then enthusiastically agreed when Papyrus dragged Undyne along. Apparently he’d been trying to get Undyne on his show of years. He never figured out you needed to phrase it as a challenge. Sans and Toriel took the chance to slip away while Mettaton led Frisk, Papyrus, Undyne, through a puzzle challenge, musical number, and cooking show. The puzzle challenge was Alphy's random square grid. Papyurs was allowed a piece of paper to remember what the squares did. Frisk got stuck, their puzzle was rigged to be impossible to pass, they just knew it. Undyne won by just stomping through the whole thing. In the cooking challenge, Undyne set the kitchen set on fire and then almost attacked Mettaton when he started babbling disclaimers about 'please don't try this at home'. Mettaton then had the brilliant idea for ‘drama’ and invaded Alphys’ lab, where Sans and Toriel were hiding, and ambushed them all with a quiz show. A ridiculous quiz which quickly turned into increasingly embarrassing questions about people’s personal lives.

“Final question! Who does Dr. Alphys have a crush on?”

Frisk and Papyrus didn’t know. Sans continued to doze behind his podium. Toriel frowned at Metaton for dragging her into this. Alphys hid her face and Undyne seemed uncertain.

“Alphys?” Mettaton prompted.

“No!” Alphys wailed. Her points were depleted to zero with a buzzer sound.

“I forget to mention, whoever gets this question right wins the whole challenge!” Mettaton talked over her. “Who wants to guess?”

Papyrus raised his hand first but then realized, “OH WAIT, I DON’T KNOW THE ANSWER.” The buzzer and red light indicated Papyrus was out of the running.

“Mettaton?” Frisk guessed.

“Good guess but no.” Mettaton buzzed Frisk out. “Mysterious Boss Monster?”

“I’m not playing this game.”

“What a spoil sport you are.” BBZZZZ “Lazy Bones?”

“Zzzzz.”

“While we all love a nap now and then, I wouldn’t call it a crush. So no!” BBBZZZ “Undyne your turn.”

“Hey! If I’m going to confess I’m not going to do it on one of your stupid shows!”

“And we’re out of time! By default the winner is me, Mettaton! What a shocking turn of events. As a reward we all get to see the glamourous finale to today’s show. Stay tuned Underground!”

Frisk and Papyrus clapped as Mettaton blasted off with rockets and confetti.

“Uh…Alphys, about that…” Undyne awkwardly started to say something.

“Undyne wait, be-before you say anything. I…I need to do something important." Alphys went to a door labeled restroom. Undyne followed her. Toriel's phone rang and she left to answer it. 

Papyrus wondered, “SANS, IS SHE TALKING ABOUT THAT BIG SECRET?”

“yeah, I talked to her. You were right bro, she needed to get that off her chest.” Frisk nodded in agreement.

“THAT WAS FUN BUT BACK TO IMPORTANT SEARCHING. WHERE HAVEN’T WE LOOKED?”

“New Home.” Frisk said. Mettaton's show had given them a thorough tour of Hotland.

“there and the castle. Actually, now that the Toriel’s been on TV, the king probably isn’t watching the human souls as closely as he should.”

Frisk gasped. “Someone told Mettaton I was a human. That could be their plan!”

The three of them hurried but they didn’t need to. Nobody was in the royal apartments, throne room, or barrier room.

“WHEW!” Papyrus was relieved but then became distracted by the barrier. Frisk became distracted staring at the six souls in jars. Frisk frowned while they thought.

“Daddy, is Flowey right, that ‘all you need to exist in this world is determination’?”

Sans shrugged, “those two are pretty convincing case studies to support that.”

“Really…then, I have an idea…” They leaned close to Sans and whispered near his skull.

“Oh, my, god, kiddo, you’re a genius!” In a rare display of athleticism Sans not only hugged Frisk but picked them up with excitement. Frisk cheered. “Now let’s go run the maths on that.”

“Nnooo, not more math!” Frisk wailed like Papyrus after hearing a bad joke.

“Yes, all of the math.”

“Papa! Sans is being mean!”

“WELL MAYBE YOU SHOULDN’T HAVE ENCOURAGED HIS PUNS SO MUCH.” Papyurs teased back.

“I don’t say puns.”

“NO, YOU SIGN THEM BEHIND MY BACK, DON’T THINK I DON’T NOTICE!” Frisk gave an overly dramatic gasp while Sans laughed.

“Ahem.” A cleared throat made them look up. Most of the royal guard arrived.

“HELLO, WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?”

“Undyne asked us to come.”

“What no I didn’t!” Undyne herself showed up. “I’m here to support Alphys.”

“I-I came to-to talk to Asgore.” Alphys explained.

“Boss, we got a text from you,” 01 said.

“Not from me, I lost my phone during that stupid robot’s show.”

“’Stupid Robot’ how dare you?” Mettaton appeared on que.

“M-Mettaton, what? What are you doing here?”

“This is where I’m hosting the live reveal of my new form! I was told the light here is perfect.” Mettaton waved to his crew and collection of fans.

“Howdy, everyone. I didn’t realize you were here.” Asgore and Toriel awkwardly entered the room as well.

Frisk glanced around, it looked like almost every monster in the underground was here. Frisk suddenly had a very bad feeling about this. Sans must have too because he looked at Frisk meaningfully, “you determined, kiddo?” Frisk nodded.

Not a second later, thousands of familiar thorny vines erupted from the floor and ceiling. Frisk latched onto Sans, Papyrus grabbed Sans and Frisk, Sans reached for the human souls, only for his blue magic to be beaten by a flash of red magic.

This time, the world didn’t freeze, it just disappeared. Frisk looked around at the Void. Sans and Papyrus were fuzzy, faces covered by flashing rectangles and their souls glowing brightly through their clothes. Frisk felt heavy. Like something was squeezing their chest really tight and…

The weight suddenly disappeared. Frisk looked down as their special shirt disintegrated into ones and zeroes and their red soul could be seen. They glanced over their shoulder only to smile at who they saw there. “Thanks, Grandpa.” He grinned briefly before flickering back out of existence.

“Sans, Papyrus wake up!” Firsk turned back to the brothers. Both skeletons looked down at Frisk. “Papy! Dady!”

The distortion disappeared in a flash. “FRISK!”

“hey kid.”

“We can’t stay here,” Frisk didn’t know how they knew that, they just did. “We need to find Asriel and Chara, they control this place now.”

“No need to go looking.” Chara’s voice made the family of three jump.

Looking like they did when they were alive, the royal children stood side by side holding hands. Frisk held hands with their big brothers and stood to face them, unafraid.

“We’re a god now.” Asriel said. “We can restart everything from the beginning.”

“Why! Just let us get to the surface! Isn’t that what you always wanted?” Frisk said.

“frisky is the seventh soul, we can break the barrier.”

“Who cares? There’s no point to that anymore.”

“MONSTERS AND HUMANS CAN BE FRIENDS.”

“No. That’s impossible now. Humans will never forgive monsters after what Asgore did,” Chara said. “You’re a human, Frisk, you understand.”

“All we can do now is play the game some more,” Asriel agreed.

“What if we can fix that?!” Frisk said with determination. “Alphys brought you guys back. If we bring the other humans back to life than nobody will be angry. Monsters can finally be free. That’s what you died to do, Chara!” At the mention of their name, Chara looked away.

“Who cares about that anymore? I just want my game back.”

“Azy, stop it!” Chara interrupted him.

“…Chara?”

“Don’t you think it’s time we stopped, Asriel?”

“Wha? What are you talking about?”

“I remember now, do you remember? Why we chose to quit?”

He considered for a minute before voicing a painful memory. “We could have loaded our game back when we died. But we didn’t did we?”

“I’m not a nice person, Azy. But I died doing something good. I didn’t want to take you with me but…I’m happy with how things ended. I didn’t reset on purpose.”

“Chara! We can’t give up now.”

“Is that really you saying that Asriel? Or just the artificial determination you’re full of.”

“…”

“You told me that you tried to die but couldn’t. As Flowey you had to keep on going and going with no reason. I know what that feels like Asriel. Why I climbed the mountain in the first place, remember.”

“Then…Chara, you really want to quit?”

“Even if manage to kill Frisk; monsters are still trapped, our parents are divorced, our father killed six children. Monsters are supposed to be better than this. I don’t want to hurt people just to have fun anymore. You taught me to be better than that.”

“Chara, you’re crying.”

“You are too. I…I’m sorry I ever called you a crybaby, Azy. You’ve always been a lot stronger than me.”

“That’s not true Chara, you’re the strongest person I know.”

The siblings hugged. Frisk and Papyrus ran over to comfort them, Sans was dragged (not entirely unwillingly) along for the group hug.

“We’re sorry for all the trouble we caused.” Asriel told them.

“IT’S OKAY, FRIENDS. WE KNOW.”

“You really were a good friend during all my resets, Papyrus. Even when I didn’t deserve it.” He looked guiltily at Sans. “I really am sorry, Sans.”

“…forgiven.” Sans petted his head. “just don’t do it again.”

“In the end, I just made things worse for monsters,” Chara said sadly. “Frisk, did you save right before this?” Frisk nodded. “I thought I felt that. Can you load that file after we leave? If you break the barrier there, in front of everyone, maybe monsters can get the happy ending we couldn’t give them.” The royal children stepped away a few paces.

“How can you access previous saves? I never learned how. You kinda ruined our final plot by doing that,” Asriel asked both to confirm Frisk could fix everything and out of genuine curiosity.

“Math,” Frisk answered honestly.

“What?”

“Quantum physics and coding.” Sans said.

“…”

“Would you prefer if we said, ‘mmaagggiicc’?” Sans added.

“SANS…” Despite Papyrus scolding him the two royal children just chuckled.

“Heh.”

“Wow, even with a soul, I find you annoying.”

“ARE YOU SURE YOU WANT TO GO?”

“It’s for the best. Just please tell Mom and Dad, that I’m sorry.” Chara said.

“Also tell them that it’s okay to cry for us.”

“Where are you two going?” Frisk asked.

Asriel and Chara looked each other in the eyes. “We don’t know.”

“Someplace we don’t have to be determined.”

“It’s okay, we’ll go there together.” They turned their backs to the skeleton family and linked hands again.

“We might even meet you there sometime, who knows?” They glanced back at Frisk once more with matching smiles.

“So…see you.” Without another sound they walked away into the darkness.

Sniff. Papyrus tried to cry quietly so as not to ruin the moment.

Frisk hugged their family and loaded without accessing their menu. This time things felt different. Sans and Papyrus fell backwards with them while two other presences didn’t. This time everything went black very slowly and when Frisk opened their eyes it wasn’t to a gold star, it was to a gold flower. Frisk lay in a patch of yellow flowers. Sans and Papyrus stirred awake on either side of them.  
  


“About time you wake up!”

“U-Undyne give, give them room.”

“Are you alright my friends?” Toriel spoke next.

“The three of you fainted.” Asgore was also there.

Frisk sat up. By looking at their brothers’ expressions they could tell the reset worked.

“Frisk! I saw you on TV, that was awesome!” MK ducked around the adults to get in Frisk’s face.

“Papyrus!”

“YES, UNDYNE?”

“The second you’re feeling better I’m going to kick your butt for not telling me Frisk is a human!”

Frisk quickly felt their head only to realize their horns and undershirt were missing.

“It’s okay, Frisk, I totally knew.” MK said before Frisk could feel guilty. At Frisk’s questioning look, they explained. “The upside down soul and weird food were a dead giveaway, dude.” Frisk affectionately headbutted MK, his version of a hug.

“Don’t worry, the three of you won’t be in trouble. Right Asgore?” Toriel said with a pointed glare.

“…” The king said nothing.

“An exclusive interview with a human! Monsters must see this!” Mettaton ducked in for a dramatic line.

Frisk remembered they had something important to do and jumped to their feet.

“FRISK, ARE YOU READY?”

“right now, frisky?”

“Mmhhmm,” Frisk grabbed both their hands with excitement. “Come help me blast it!”

“REALLY, YOU WANT OUR HELP?”

“You’re going to want to turn that camera off, Mettablook, or else you’ll see an act you can never upstage,” Sans gave a parting shot before being dragged towards the barrier by Frisk.

Frisk pulled both skeletons to the opening in the mountain. The other monsters muttered among themselves and followed.

“Can you get them out of the jars?” Frisk asked. Sans turned the souls blue and pulled them closer.

“Fellow humans!” Frisk imitated Papyrus but then decided to just be themselves. “Hi, my name is Frisk. I fell into the Underground when I was only three. This is Papyrus and Sans, they raised me and I love them a lot. They saved me and now I want to try to save them too. Will you please help me do that?

“I know the six of you didn’t get the same chance at a new family as I did. I’m really sorry. But if you help us now, and maybe let my brothers borrow your souls for a little bit. Then I promise, we’ll do our best to help you in return. Give us the chance and we’ll prove monsters really are nice. Please?”

For a moment the souls hung in silence. Then orange pulsed and floated closer. The rest of them joined in quickly. “Yay! Thank you!” Not wanting to waste any time, Frisk jumped in a circle to face the Barrier. They raised both arms overhead to summon Free and Risk, which earned them a few surprised gasps from the audience. MK had seen them before but cheered anyway.

Papyrus figured out how to use the human souls even faster than Sans. He summoned blasters to float directly above the human soul, allowing the heart to pour power directly into it. Sans created blasters for the rest of the souls and a few of his own. Frisk glanced at their brothers to make sure they were ready. They attacked the Barrier with everything they had.

For a second it looked like the Barrier might stand up to their attack but then it cracked. The shimmering wall shattered and disappeared as if it never existed at all. Created with the magic of seven human mages. Broken with the magic of seven human and two monster souls.

Frisk took a second to catch their breath, only to be tackled by their best friend. “That was the coolest thing ever!”

Sans and Papyrus quickly returned the souls to their jars, with a bit of help from Asgore and Alphys.

“You’re not letting them go?” Toriel asked.

“Not yet,” Sans really wanted a nap after all this excitement but figured he wouldn’t get one for a bit longer. “Alphys brought a flower and a few other things to life with DT shot.” He waited for the scientist to nod. “Pretty safe guess what will happen if we put the human souls back in their bodies and hook ‘em up.”

“You…you think we might be able to save them?” Asgore looked close to tears.

“B-but I don’t have that much determination left, if… if I drain these souls too much…”

“won’t need to, guess who’s overflowing with the stuff.”

“Me!” Frisk hopped up and down and waved their arms in the air.

“I’m gonna have to double check the extractor, make sure it’s safe for frisky to get in.”

“You totally saved the day, dude! I need to tell my folks!” MK sprinted away.

“Will that really work?” Undyne asked.

“Um…well…it might not be pperfect. But uh, it would prove to the h-humans that we, we don’t mean any harm.”

“A way to at least try to right our wrongs,” Toriel agreed.

“BUT FIRST!” Papyrus looked down at Frisk. “FRISK, WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE THE SURFACE AGAIN?”

Frisk grinned. They took their brother’s hands and walked towards the sunlight.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I angsted long and hard over Asriel and Chara's end. I think this is the kindest and closest to canon I could make it.


End file.
